It is wise to remember that you cannot believe everything you hear during a presidential campaign. However, when opposing candidates tell voters that those nominated by the next Supreme Court president could shape the law for a generation, it may turn out to be true.

During the Supreme Court’s tenure that began this week, judges will hear cases that could have a significant impact on the right to bear arms and the power of states to restrict access to legal abortion, as well. than many other controversial issues.

The Abortion Case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, is a challenge to a Mississippi law of 2018 that prohibits most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The law conflicts with the Roe v. Wade of 1973, which prohibited states from making abortion illegal before fetal viability, around 23 or 24 weeks.

Following the death of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to succeed her, the court could have a majority of five votes to overturn Roe v. Wade. Chief Justice John Roberts, widely regarded as a conservative, voted with the liberal wing of the court in a recent 5-4 ruling that refused to prevent an abortion law from coming into force in Texas .

But it is impossible to know for sure how a court will vote on a particular case. After leaving the White House, President Dwight Eisenhower reportedly said, “I made two mistakes, and they both sit on the Supreme Court. Historians dispute whether he said so, but not the underlying fact that Supreme Court justices, once confirmed, are not bound by the views previously expressed.

The court will hear oral argument in the Mississippi case on December 1. The public will be able to listen to the live audio of the arguments, a pandemic-era accommodation that the court has decided to pursue.

On November 3, judges will hear a Second Amendment case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, who could determine whether states have the power to impose strict limits on carrying firearms outside the home. The court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to own a firearm, ending the argument that the Constitution protects the right to own a firearm only in relation to service in a militia . However, the court dismissed all subsequent cases related to the right to “bear” arms outside the home until Judge Barrett joined the court.

During this term, judges will also hear a case from Maine on whether a state can exclude a religious school that also offers secular education from a state school curriculum, or whether that exclusion violates the religious clauses and the equal protection clause of the Constitution. The pleadings in Carson v. Makin are scheduled for December 8th.

The three people appointed by President Donald Trump to the court – Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – are seen as likely to vote with longtime Tory Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, creating a Tory majority that could shape the interpretation of the Constitution and laws of the land. for many years to come.

So you see, not everything that is said during a campaign is wrong.