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Supreme Court: What are some of the cases the court will be hearing this year?

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday begins its 2022-2023 term with a new justice and a list of cases including ones that focus on race, the environment and artist Andy Warhol’s paintings.

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Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black female justice in the court’s history, will join the other justices as they begin hearing cases in their eight-month term.

Here are some of the cases that the justices are expected to hear during the term.

Clean Water Act

On Monday, the court will hear arguments about whether to limit the scope of the Clean Water Act of 1972. The justices will hear the case of an Idaho couple’s effort to build a home on property that the federal government deemed a protected wetland.

Voting Rights Act

Alabama is appealing a lower court ruling that invalidates a map approved by the state’s legislature that drew the boundaries of the seven U.S. House of Representatives districts in the state.

According to the lower court, the redistricting map violated the Voting Rights Act by concentrating the electoral clout of Black voters into one district.

Affirmative action admissions

A group is appealing lower court rulings that upheld race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. According to the group, the schools have discriminated against applicants on the basis of race. According to the schools, race is only one factor in the application process.

Judicial review of legislature’s election laws

The justices will hear an appeal to a ruling in North Carolina that — if successful — would limit the ability of state courts to review the actions of the state’s legislature when it comes to elections. The case will invoke the “independent state legislature doctrine” to argue that the Constitution gives legislatures, not state courts, authority over election rules up to and including the drawing of electoral districts.

Religious rights

An evangelical Christian web designer says she wants the court to rule on whether she can be forced under a Colorado anti-discrimination law to produce websites for same-sex marriages. The web designer tried to get an exemption from the law but lost her bid in a lower court ruling.

Andy Warhol art

The court will hear a copyright dispute concerning a 1984 painting by Andy Warhol of the rock star Prince. The dispute is between a photographer and Warhol’s estate. Warhol’s estate — the Andy Warhol Foundation — is challenging a lower court ruling that found his paintings of Prince, based on a photo by Lynn Goldsmith shot for Newsweek magazine in 1981, were not protected by the copyright law doctrine called fair use. Fair use allows the unlicensed use of copyright-protected material under certain circumstances.

Native American adoption

The court will hear a case over the legality of federal requirements that give Native American families priority to adopt Native American children. The Biden administration is defending the 1978 law. The case was brought by a non-Native American family and the state of Texas.

Corporations agree to be sued

The justices will consider whether corporations can be required to agree to be sued in that state’s courts as a condition of doing business in the state.