The Supreme Court has already reached an inauspicious milestone as it races to finish its most divisive pending cases in the coming days: It has handed down more 6-3 decisions along ideological lines than it did for the entire term that ended last year.
As it navigates a charged political atmosphere during President Donald Trump’s second term and endures sharp criticism from the left and right, the court has split into conservative and liberal camps in 10 decisions this year — four more than last year — before it even gets to major cases on presidential power and transgender rights.
Some of those decisions, including on whether Trump may fire officials at independent federal agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, may also divide the court along ideological lines. The justices are scheduled to drop their next batch of opinions on Monday.
Seven of the nine decisions the court released on Tuesday and Thursday were 6-3. Those included two major immigration decisions that sided with Trump, a ruling that barred a Rastafarian man from suing prison officials who violated a federal law when they cut his dreadlocks and a decision that permitted Exxon to sue over property confiscated by the Cuban government in 1960.
