U.S. Supreme Court opens new term with a fresh face and environmental case

The U.S. Supreme Court opened what promises to be an eventful new term on Monday, hearing arguments in an environmental dispute, welcoming a history-making justice to the bench and taking up some new cases to be decided in the next nine months.

President Joe Biden's appointee Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman justice, took part in oral arguments for the first time since being confirmed by the Senate in April to replace now-retired Justice Stephen Breyer. Jackson was not shy, posing questions to lawyers appearing in the first of two cases argued on Monday - a closely watched fight from Idaho over environmental regulation.

Members of the public were allowed into the ornate courtroom to watch the arguments for the first time since early in the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The court's 6-3 conservative majority has become increasingly assertive, as evidenced by its rulings last term overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that had legalized abortion nationwide and expanding gun rights. Jackson becomes a member of the court's liberal bloc. She is the sixth woman ever to serve on the court. And for the first time, four women serve together - Jackson, Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.