There is a common consensus among students of the Court that the 2006 Term was one of the most controversial and breathtaking in recent memory. Not since Bush v. Gore have Supreme Court Justices disagreed with each other so sharply.

At this point last year (one week before the term begins), the Court had already accepted nine of the twenty-one cases that would be decided by a 5-4 majority (Ayers, Lawrence, Phillip Morris, Marama, Mass. v. EPA, Carhart, James v. US, Ledbetter, and Parents Involved.)

Stoneridge and Boumediene are the biggest cases accepted by the Court thus far in the 2007 term. Neither Stoneridge, a corporate fraud case, nor Boumediene, a detainee case, elicit the same political and emotional outcry as some of the Court’s major decisions last term such as Ledbetter, Parents Involved, and Morse.

The Court is expected to release a new orders list on tuesday and accept 8-12 cases. The Court accepted nine cases from the long conference in 2006 and eleven in 2005. Last year, two of those cases were decided 5-4: Schriro and Zuni.