WASHINGTON _ The Supreme Court likes to view itself as the quiet at the center of the storm, and it has never been more so than this week.
The eight justices opened their new term on Monday and heard arguments on whether a tiny endangered frog that lives only in Mississippi may also have a protected "critical habitat" in forest land in Louisiana. Weyerhauser, a large timber company and wood manufacturer, argues the court should limit the definition of protected habitat to the areas where an endangered species now lives.
Meanwhile just a block away, the Senate is tied up in fierce partisan dispute over whether Judge Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed to fill the court's ninth seat. Kavanaugh's partisan rant last week against Democrats _ who pushed for an FBI probe into decades-old sexual assault allegations against him _ threatened to undermine the Supreme Court's effort to appear independent and above politics.
The court on Monday also tossed out without comment hundreds of appeal petitions that had piled up over its summer recess. They included a challenge to California's coastal development permits from a Silicon Valley billionaire who closed access to secluded Martins Beach near Half Moon Bay.
The slow start to the court's term may not last.
Several divisive cases are on their way. They include the dispute over whether President Trump has the authority to end the Obama-era order that shielded the so-called Dreamers from deportation. Judges have blocked Trump's repeal from taking effect and the high court is awaiting a ruling on the issue from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The justices may also be called upon to decide whether the administration can add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, something California and other states with large immigrant populations oppose.
