Latest Developments: Updated: May 1, 2009  In its 2008-2009 term, the Supreme Court has before it a docket that so far is consistent with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.'s stated preference for modest and incremental decision making. At the same time the justices have already tackled major cases.  Limiting the sweep of the Voting Rights Act, the court has ruled that only election districts in which minorities make up at least half of the voting-age population are entitled to the protections of a part of the act that seeks to ensure and preserve minority voting power.  The court also erased a lower-court ruling on perhaps the most fundamental national security question of all: Does the president have the power to order the indefinite military detention of legal residents of the United States? The court's action, which had been urged by the Obama administration, wiped away one of the Bush administration's greatest victories in the lower courts, a 2008 ruling that expanded the limits of executive authority to combat terrorism by allowing such detentions.  In a major setback for business groups hoping to build a barrier against injury lawsuits seeking billions of dollars, the court has said state juries may award damages for harm from unsafe drugs even though their manufacturers had satisfied federal regulators.  Working at a brisker pace than it has in recent years, the court is accepting more cases and hearing them earlier in the term. In October and November of 2008, the court heard three arguments a day, rather than the usual two. By frontloading the arguments to the beginning of the term, which generally runs from October to June, the court may be able to issue decisions more regularly and avoid the usual end-of-term barrage of significant rulings.
News about the U.S. Supreme Court. Commentary and archival information about the U.S. Supreme Court from The New York Times.