The US Supreme Court, including newest member Sonia Sotomayor, will begin a new term today with issues including gun rights and counter-terrorism on the docket, and growing speculation about the possible departure of a judge.
The nine justices on the highest court in the US have agreed to examine 55 cases this term. They will soon decide whether to add to that roster an appeal brought by Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been cleared for release and are seeking resettlement in the US.
Another sensitive case likely to be taken up by the court is US President Barack Obama’s request to block the release of photos showing detainee abuse at the hands of US personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite a court order demanding the images be made public.
The justices have already agreed to take on a case that involves defining the outer parameters of the term “material support to terrorism,” a charge that has been leveled in recent years in dozens of cases to obtain some 60 convictions.
It has become an important tool for prosecutors because it is such a broad term, but its use is being contested by a rights group on behalf of an organization that has worked on conflict resolution and human rights issues with members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Whatever decision the court makes, it will affect dozens of detainees at Guantanamo who have had the charge filed against them.
On the domestic front, the court will hear a case asking it to specify whether its ruling in June last year ruling confirming Americans’ rights to bear firearms, at home and for self defense, applies even where local and state governments ban weapons.
The justices will also decide whether minors can be sentenced to life in prison without parole for crimes other than murder — there are some 100 prisoners in this situation in the US.
The case in question involves two Florida prisoners, who were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole at ages 13 and 16 for rape and burglary.
In a case with international scope, the court will be asked to decide whether the immunity of former Somali prime minister Mohammed Ali Samatar can be lifted to allow him to be pursued for alleged torture and murder carried out in the 1980s.
Other issues on the docket include questions over whether financial strategies or management principles can be patented, whether videos showing animal cruelty are illegal, and legality of a two meter cross that stands in the middle of a desert.
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