Supreme Court conservatives poised to make their mark in new term

It may not feel that way, but the United States Supreme Court has stayed fairly quiet over the past four years.

To be sure, there have been a few big decisions – perhaps most notably the 5-4 decision in June that federal courts can’t place limits on partisan gerrymandering. Rancorous partisan battles to confirm two new justices have also dominated the headlines, but when it comes to the court’s main job – interpreting the toughest statutory and constitutional questions – significant developments have been few and far between since Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016.

That could be about to change, and quickly.

And public confidence in the court – now arguably more reliably conservative than at