India, Oct. 6 -- The nine justices of the United States Supreme Court returned to the bench on Monday morning and immediately confronted what may be the most consequential array of legal questions the court has agreed to hear since it overturned Roe v Wade four years ago, a docket that reaches into the grocery store, the classroom, the ballot box, the neighbourhood gun shop, and the pipeline of fossil fuels driving a warming planet.

The start of the Supreme Court's new term brought cases involving climate change, US President Donald Trump's immigration policies, and the Second Amendment among the most high-profile disputes the justices will hear in the coming months.

With 29 live cases already accepted for argument and more expected to ...