The U.S. Supreme Court's 2026–2027 term officially kicks off on Monday. But you may be forgiven if you didn't realize the justices had actually gone away on a summer break. After all, the Court has certainly stayed busy enough over the past two months, issuing a number of high-profile orders and opinions on issues ranging from President Donald Trump's efforts to restrict the use of mail-in ballots to the president's ongoing construction of a new White House ballroom.
Those cases, however, were all from the Supreme Court's emergency docket, sometimes also known among its critics as the shadow docket. The Court's regular docket, in which the justices only decide cases after reading several rounds of briefs and hearing lengthy oral arguments, was in fact on pause over the summer. That pause will be lifted on Monday when oral arguments start again.
