The Supreme Court returns Monday to consider thousands of petitions to hear cases for its upcoming term, ranging from gun law challenges to Ghislaine Maxwell‘s appeal of her sex trafficking conviction.
While the Supreme Court holds conferences throughout its term, the annual “long conference” at the end of September is unique for the number of petitions it reviews and is a key term marker.
Long conference ends Supreme Court’s summer break
The justices will convene to determine the fate of the thousands of petitions sent to the high court since their last conference on June 26, but during the closed-door meeting, only a fraction of the petitions will actually be talked about. Aside from a few order lists and activity on the emergency docket, it will be the justices’ first action since the final decision day of the previous term on June 27.
The Supreme Court receives between 5,000 and 7,000 petitions each term, but only agrees to hear roughly 60-80 of those cases. For the long conference, the high court usually only goes through 2,000 petitions, as most of the petitions are read by a law clerk who issues a report and recommendation on whether to take up the case.
Seven of the nine justices participate in a pool, which has one law clerk from one of the justices’ chambers review the filings for each case and prepare a report on the case and whether they recommend taking it up. The other two justices follow a similar process but with their own law clerks within their respective chambers. Ahead of the conference, the justices will add cases they wish to consider further to a discussion list, while those not added to the list are automatically denied.
The cases the justices decide to add to the discussion list are not publicly known. The only indication the public has about them is whether they are teed up for general consideration and whether the high court has decided to hear them.
Justices will consider thousands of applications to hear cases
While thousands of cases are slated for the long conference, notable petitions include some high-profile disputes involving gun laws, school prayer, and Maxwell’s last-ditch effort to get her conviction tossed.
The gun laws cases that the justices will weigh whether to take up include Missouri v. United States, which involves the legality of a state law in Missouri that prevents state officials from using state funds to enforce certain federal gun laws. The state has presented a trio of questions for the high court to consider answering if it takes up the case, including if “the Constitution prohibits States from exercising Tenth Amendment authority when motivated by a concern that a federal statute is unconstitutional.”
Another notable gun case is Wolford v. Lopez, which centers around whether a Hawaii law criminalizing carrying a handgun, even with a concealed carry permit, on private property unless the owner, lessee, operator, or manager of the property has given the person “express authorization to carry a firearm on the property,” violates the Second Amendment.
Religious liberty rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act are the focus of a petition in Does 1-2 v. Hochul, where a group of former healthcare workers sued the state of New York over a COVID-19 vaccine mandate to which they were denied a religious exemption. One of the two questions presented is whether a “state law that requires employers to deny without any consideration all requests by employees for a religious accommodation, contrary to Title VII’s religious nondiscrimination provision, is preempted by Title VII and the Supremacy Clause.”
Several long-shot petitions are scheduled for the justices to consider via their long conference.
The most notable long-shot bid is Maxwell’s appeal seeking to toss her sex trafficking conviction, alleging she should have been shielded from prosecution under a sweeping 2007 plea agreement Jeffrey Epstein received. The Supreme Court’s decision on her petition could affect whether Maxwell will testify before Congress, with House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) agreeing to postpone her planned deposition until after the justices decide the fate of her appeal.
Another longshot petition that sparked headlines during the Supreme Court’s summer recess came from former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis. Davis asked the high court to overturn its landmark 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized gay marriage nationwide. Davis made national headlines shortly after the Obergefell decision for denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples due to her religious beliefs.
A notable last-ditch effort the justices scheduled for the long conference comes from the Apache Stronghold, a Native American group seeking to block a copper mining company from destroying an Apache religious site.
The Supreme Court denied the petition to hear the case 7-2 in May, after it was distributed for more than a dozen conferences. However, the high court will consider its petition to reconsider at the Sept. 29 conference. Justice Neil Gorsuch, in a lengthy dissent from the decision to deny the petition in May, said it was a “grave mistake” for the high court not to take up the case.
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Conference occurs a week before the new term begins
The Supreme Court is expected to announce which cases it has agreed to take up for arguments from the long conference on Oct. 6, the same day the first set of oral arguments occur for the upcoming term.
The upcoming Supreme Court term is expected to involve multiple significant cases, ranging from tariffs to race-based redistricting. Oral arguments are expected to continue through the end of April 2026, while opinions in the cases it hears will be released through the end of June 2026.
