Good morning. The U.S. military pulled its bombers from a base in southern England after what officials called threats of an “Iran-backed plot.” And there’s more news below — including an oral history of “Friday Night Lights.” But first, let’s go to the Supreme Court.
On the docketClimate change and corporate responsibility. Freedom of religion and discrimination against gay and transgender parents. Gun rights. These are among the hot topics the Supreme Court will consider in its new term, which begins this morning. The nine justices will hear oral arguments in roughly 60 cases between now and late April. They’ll deliberate over them privately, draft opinions, fiercely debate them and eventually issue decisions. The rulings that divide the court most closely will likely come toward the end of the term, in late June or early July. The court will also respond to emergency requests on what’s known as the “shadow docket,” issuing fast-track orders typically without hearing oral arguments at all. The justices often say that they are not political actors. But this term starts about a month before midterm elections that could produce a lot of litigation that requires the court’s immediate intervention. In the political theater of late 2026, the justices could find themselves playing outsized roles. (Americans increasingly don’t like that, and polls indicate a rise in the percentage of people who disapprove of the court’s work. A new Gallup poll shows that Democrats in particular have grown to see the court, with its 6-3 majority of Republican appointees, as too conservative.) My colleagues Ann E. Marimow and Abbie VanSickle have a useful preview of the cases the justices will hear — and what’s at stake in them. Here are three:
Suncor v. BoulderFirst up, with arguments today, is a major environmental case about whether state law can be used to hold companies liable for the costs of climate change. It pits the city and county of Boulder, Colo., against Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil, companies those government entities say concealed the risks of climate change. If the justices agree, the companies would have to reimburse Boulder for damages from wildfires, floods and other extreme weather. If they don’t, the ruling would have wide impact — dozens of other cities, counties, states and tribal governments around the country have filed similar suits seeking billions of dollars from energy companies. St. Mary Catholic Parish v. RoyIn November, the court will hear a case brought by the Archdiocese of Denver that challenges Colorado rules requiring preschools that receive public funding to accept the children of gay and transgender parents. The archdiocese and two Catholic schools argue that doing so would be at odds with church teachings — but that excluding its schools from public funding would violate the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion. Lower courts have upheld the Colorado law on the grounds that the state could require participating schools to abide by its anti-discrimination rules, so long as the requirements are applied to all schools and without regard to religion. And so here we are. Viramontes v. Cook CountyThis one’s a blockbuster dealing with the question of whether state and local laws banning semiautomatic rifles violate the Constitution, a subject that the court has avoided for years. The case, slated for oral argument on Dec. 2, concerns Illinois and Connecticut, but the decision could seal the fate of similar laws around the country aimed at restricting the ownership of military-style rifles, such as the AR-15. It’s a deeply polarizing subject. AR-15-style rifles are among the most popular long guns in the United States. People hunt with them, shoot them for sport, derive comfort from having one in the name of personal safety. They’ve also been used in mass shootings, including in both the Sandy Hook and Uvalde elementary school massacres. Those who support the bans point to those catastrophes, and characterize the rifles as unusually dangerous. They argue that their restriction is an important use of governmental power to ensure the safety of the public. Opponents say such bans violate citizens’ right to bear arms. They cite a judicial precedent of “common use” to argue that a gun that tens of millions of Americans use lawfully cannot be banned anyway. Read more about the Supreme Court’s new term here. More on the court
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I had a perfect filet mignon at Le Rock in Manhattan the other night. It had probably been years since I’d eaten one. Now filets are all I can think about. Ali Slagle’s recipe could put you in the same position. Serve with oven-fried potatoes and a big thatch of watercress dressed in olive oil and lemon juice.
Deana Lawson is one of the greatest contemporary portrait photographers. Her images are deeply stylized and gleaming, “so crisp they almost seem laser cut and pasted onto the environment,” as Susan Dominus writes in T Magazine. Lawson’s latest show, up at Gagosian in New York, takes the artist in a very different direction. It’s a collection of photographs she took of photographs she found on various so-called walls of shame around the country: images of shoppers, caught on camera, who are presumed to have shoplifted. The gritty images of surveillance, she told Susan, get at “another truth.” “Like any other artist, I don’t want to feel, ‘This is the way I have to work because this is how I’m known,’” Lawson said. Read the profile. More on culture
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