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The Supreme Court At Large In An Election Year

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The Supreme Court and the candidates. What a Trump or a Clinton presidency could mean for the High Court as it kicks off a new year.

 The Supreme Court is set to begin its new term as it ended the last one, down one justice and ideologically deadlocked on a range of issues. (Alex Brandon/AP)
The Supreme Court is set to begin its new term as it ended the last one, down one justice and ideologically deadlocked on a range of issues. (Alex Brandon/AP)

Ever since the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia last winter, the U.S. Supreme Court has had only eight members instead of its full bench of nine. That means tie votes. Not on everything, but on big things. The next President will break that tie. Today, the court opens a new term with questions on race and death, church and state, immigrants and deportation. The bigger question?  Who will shape the new majority — Trump or Clinton?  This hour On Point, the Supreme Court after 2016. — Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Joan Biskupic, legal affairs editor at Reuters. Visting law professor at the University of California, Irvine. CNN legal analyst. Supreme Court biographer. (@joanbiskupic)

David Savage, Supreme Court and legal reporter for the Los Angeles Times. (@DavidGSavage)

From Tom’s Reading List

Los Angeles Times: On the Supreme Court's agenda this week: Insider trading, race and the death penalty, and false arrest lawsuits — "The Supreme Court begins hearing cases this week, but none of them looks to be a high-profile legal dispute that will split the eight justices."

Reuters: Supreme Court begins new term, still shorthanded — "Supreme Court begins new term, still shorthandedThe U.S. Supreme Court opened its new term on Monday in low-key fashion, still down a justice for the foreseeable future because of the Republican-led Senate's refusal to act on President Barack Obama's nominee to replace late Justice Antonin Scalia. The court, opening its term that runs through June, convened as usual on the first Monday in October, although three of the eight justices were absent to observe the Jewish new year holiday. The court was scheduled to hear its first oral arguments on Tuesday."

Washington Post: Supreme Court to begin new term short-handed as its ideological balance hinges on fall vote -- "The Supreme Court’s new term begins Monday with the focus not on the court’s docket but on the court itself and a future that will be defined by the presidential election. For the first time in decades, there will be only eight justices, not nine, to begin the new term. Also absent are the kind of big-ticket cases — involving immigration reform, affirmative action, abortion, same-sex marriage and the Affordable Care Act — that in recent years have catapulted the Supreme Court to the fore of American civic life."

This program aired on October 4, 2016.

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