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Small docket, big decisions in Court's new term.

Article Excerpt
The Supreme Court began its October term on the first Monday of last month. The docket that had been set before the justices retired for their summer recess included few blockbusters like the cases that yielded last year's rulings on abortion, school desegregation, and punitive damages. But that could change--and dramatically--as the Court grants review in additional cases.

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The new term will reaffirm the Court's preference for a small docket. Most years, the Court sets about half of its docket before adjourning for the summer. This year, it granted review in only 25 cases for the fall term before breaking for the summer and then granted review in 17 more in September. Last term, the justices heard 68 cases--the smallest number in over a half-century. And to reach even that small number, they would have to add another 26 cases to their workload.

But even this thin docket promises major decisions about the rights of Guantanamo detainees, criminal procedure, employment law, and voting rights. The Court may also decide its first case on the Second Amendment and gun control in almost 70 years.

The Military Commission Act

Without doubt, the most important cases this term will be those dealing with the rights of so-called enemy combatants held at the government's detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In Boumediene v. Bush and Al-Odah v. Bush, the Court will consider whether it is constitutional for a federal law to preclude these detainees from bringing a writ of habeas corpus to federal court. (1)

The Military Commission Act of 2006 (MCA) states that noncitizens detained as enemy combatants do not have that right. (2) Instead, they must first go through military proceedings and then seek review in the Court of Appeals for the District of...

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