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What the Supreme Court still has left to decide this term

Democracy and Donald Trump dominate the Court’s remaining docket.

Being a Supreme Court justice is a pretty sweet gig.

The Court typically hears about 60 cases a year, plus a smattering of “shadow docket” cases that receive expedited review. Like schoolchildren, the justices take their summers off — typically wrapping up their pending cases in June and then skipping town in early July.

Get the latest developments on the US Supreme Court from senior correspondent Ian Millhiser.

And the justices are currently in the final stretch before they can enjoy their summer off. On Wednesday, the Court heard the last arguments of its current term. So all that is left for the justices to do is finish writing their current slate of opinions (along with a mix of concurrences and dissents), before their summer breaks can begin.

Two issues dominate this term’s remaining cases: democracy and President Donald Trump. The Court just decided a case that kicked off another round of Republican gerrymandering in the US South — and that will likely eviscerate Black representation in many Southern red states in the process. There are two more election cases coming before the justices peace out for the summer.

It sure looks like the Voting Rights Act is doomed

The Court will also decide several cases where Trump seeks to expand his power and the power of the presidency. These include some cases where the outcome is preordained — the Court’s Republican majority, for example, has long fixated on the “unitary executive,” a legal theory that gives Trump the power to fire nearly anyone who leads a federal agency. But the Court is also likely to reject Trump’s claim that he can strip citizenship from many Americans who were born in the United States.

This term also features two perennial culture war issues: guns and LGBTQ rights. Gun advocates will probably celebrate two upcoming decisions, where the Court is likely to take an expansive view of the Second Amendment. Transgender student athletes, meanwhile, should brace themselves for bad news.

On Wednesday, the Court handed down Louisiana v. Callais, a hugely consequential — but not exactly unexpected — decision neutralizing a provision of the Voting Rights Act that sometimes requires states to draw additional majority-Black or -Latino districts. The upshot of this decision is that between half-a-dozen and a dozen seats that currently are held by Democrats of color are likely to be held by white Republicans after several red states redraw their maps.

The Court will also decide National Republican........

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