WASHINGTON — In the shadow of a titanic confirmation fight, the Supreme Court will return to the bench on Monday with a docket that offers an opportunity to lower the temperature. Blockbuster cases on fiery social issues are missing from the calendar, at least for now. Instead, the justices will face lower-profile but still consequential legal questions that may allow them to find ways to bridge the usual ideological divides. The justices have made similar attempts at unity in the past in reaction to fraught transitions on the court, like the one after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016. This time, the task has grown only more urgent as the bitterly partisan confirmation process for Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, has been delayed so the F.B.I.

Source: New York Times September 30, 2018 18:23 UTC