The U.S. Supreme Court is considering several cases for its upcoming term, including disputes over immigrant detention, prediction market regulations, and the display of the Ten Commandments in schools. The court’s nine-month term is scheduled to begin on Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. The justices are expected to announce this week which of these new cases they will add to a docket that already includes approximately two dozen granted cases.
The immigration case centers on a policy used during President Donald Trump's administration. Last year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) adopted a position that non-U.S. citizens residing in the country, rather than just those arriving at the border, are "applicants for admission" subject to mandatory detention without bond hearings. The administration has asked the Supreme Court to endorse this policy, which has been rejected in nine of 11 decisions by federal appeals courts.
In a separate matter, the court may address whether prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket should be regulated as financial derivatives or as gambling. Market operators argue these platforms fall under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. However, a bipartisan group of states contends the sports-related contracts on these platforms constitute gambling and should be subject to state sports betting laws, taxes, and licensing regimes.
The court is also mulling a challenge to a 2025 Texas law that mandates the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom. Families backed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) appealed to the Supreme Court after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law. While a 1980 Supreme Court ruling struck down a similar Kentucky statute, a 2022 decision involving a high school football coach established a new legal framework that the 5th Circuit applied to uphold the Texas mandate.
The prediction market case involves a wide range of stakeholders, including 50 states, Native American tribes, casinos, and multi-billion-dollar financial exchanges. If the court classifies these markets as gambling, operators would face a complex patchwork of state-level criminal statutes, licensing fees, and taxes. This could impact users of platforms such as Crypto.com and Robinhood, which have expanded into these event contracts. Conversely, a ruling that they are derivatives would centralize regulation under federal oversight.
In the education and religious sectors, the ruling on the Ten Commandments will determine the requirements for thousands of public school classrooms in Texas and potentially other states. Republican-led legislatures in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama have passed similar requirements. For families and students in these states, the outcome will define the boundaries of religious expression and state mandates in public schools. The Supreme Court's session begins Oct. 5, 2026, with the justices expected to issue orders on which cases to hear in the days leading up to the start of the term.