washington with public confidence diminished and justices sparring openly over the institutions legitimacy the supreme court on monday will begin a new term that could push american law to the right on issues of race voting and the environmentfollowing junes momentous overturning of nearly 50 years of constitutional protections for abortion rights the court is diving back in with an aggressive agenda that seems likely to split its six conservative justices from its three liberalsits not going to be a sleepy term said allison orr larsen a william and mary law professor cases the court already has agreed to hear really have the potential to bring some pretty significant changes to the lawinto this swirling mix steps new justice ketanji brown jackson the courts first black woman jackson took the seat of justice stephen breyer a member of the courts liberal wing who retired in june shes not expected to alter the liberalconservative divide on the court but for the first time the court has four women as justices and white men no longer hold a majoritythe court with three appointees of president donald trump could discard decades of decisions that allow colleges to take account of race in admissions and again weaken the federal voting rights act of 1965 the crown jewel of the civil rights movementin a separate elections case a republicanled appeal could dramatically change the way elections for congress and the presidency are conducted by handing more power to state legislatures and taking it away from state courtsalso on the agenda is a clash over the rights of a business owner with a religious objection to working with samesex couples on their weddingsin the terms first arguments monday the justices are being asked to limit the reach of the clean water act nations main law to combat water pollution the case involves an idaho couple who won an earlier high court round in their bid to build a house on property near a lake without getting a permit under that lawthe outcome could change the rules for millions of acres of property that contain wetlandsa supreme court decision for the couple could strip environmental protections from 45 million acres and threaten water quality for millions of people said sam sankar senior vice president of the earthjustice environmental groupits going to help a lot of industries its going to hurt real people sankar saidbut damien schiff representing the couple said a favorable court ruling could free ordinary property owners from worrying about large fines and years of delays you dont have to be a large industrial company or large property owner to have a problem schiff saidtheres little expectation that the outcomes in the highestprofile cases will be anything other than conservative victories following last terms outcomes in their first full term together the conservatives ruled not only on abortion but expanded gun rights enhanced religious rights reined in the governments ability to fight climate change and limited biden administration efforts to combat covid19deborah archer president of