New U.S. Supreme Court Term Begins Today : Potentially Significant Landmark Cases on the Docket : Bilski Tops the List : Business Cases Dominate

Jess Bravin at the Washington Wire of WSJ Blogs reports in Supreme Court Majority Opinion: Attend Red Mass as follows:

"Each sitting of the Supreme Court begins after the marshal cries, 'God save the United States and this Honorable Court!' Each term begins, unofficially at least, with a more-elaborate entreaty for divine oversight: the Red Mass, conducted since 1953 at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington.... Five of the court’s six Catholics attended Sunday — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor — as did one of its two Jews, Justice Stephen Breyer."

6 Supreme Court Justices Attend Red Mass in Washington D.C.
Legal issues are a sign of the times and so it comes as no surprise, as Adam Liptak at the New York Times observes in New Court Term Hints at Views on Regulating Business, that the focus of cases on the docket of the U.S. Supreme Court, which begins its new term today, Monday, October 4, 2009, has shifted toward the problems raised by the economy. Liptak writes:

"By the time the justices left for their summer break in June, a majority of the cases they had agreed to hear — 24 of 45 — concerned business issues, according to a tally by the National Chamber Litigation Center of the United States Chamber of Commerce. The corresponding numbers last year were 16 of 42.

The nature of the cases has changed, too. In recent terms, the business docket was studded with cases about employment discrimination, federal pre-emption of injury suits and the environment. With the exception of a single employment case, all of those categories are missing.

In their stead, important questions about bankruptcy, corporate compensation, patents, antitrust and government oversight of the financial system will confront the justices."

The most significant case in our opinion is potentially Bilski, Docket No. 08-964, about which we have written previously at LawPundit. The Court's decision in Bilski - which challenges the invalidation by the Federal Circuit (9 to 3 en banc) of intangible business method patents - will establish whether the Roberts-led Court is attuned to cutting-edge developments in the modern world.

See on the topic of the upcoming Supreme Court term and cases on the docket:

TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime - Supreme Court Begins New Term.

James Vicini, Reuters, Supreme court term has major gun rights, business cases

Adam Liptak, New York Times, New Court Term Hints at Views on Regulating Business

Talking Points Memo - TPM News - US Supreme Court to examine terrorism, gun rights

Philip Brooks' Patent Infringement Updates

digg - Supreme Court Term Begins Today

blogrunner - U.S. Supreme Court

Related - see also:
Obama begins to overhaul key US appeals court