WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is starting a new term that promises a steady stream of divisive social issues, and also brighter prospects for conservatives who suffered more losses than usual in recent months.
The justices are meeting in public Monday for the first time since a number of high-profile decisions in June that displayed passionate, sometimes barbed disagreements and suggested some bruised feelings among the nine judges.
Chris Harper Mercer, the gunman who killed nine people at Umpqua Community College in Oregon Oct. 1 before turning the gun on himself, allegedly targeted Christians, according to witnesses to the rampage.
The killing spree at the Rosenburg, Ore., college that serves more 13,000 full- and part-time students was the worst this year, with the death toll higher than that from the gang shooting in Waco, Texas in May and the Charleston, S.C. massacre in June.
