This is a 45 page chapter on the 2017-18 term of the US Supreme Court. The goal of the chapter is to support any American Government book that needs additional, up-to-date coverage on this topic.  The chapter is sold as part of a bundle with American Government texts. Prominent cases --- and their likely policy consequences --- will be examined in this chapter. At the same time, it will consider some of the less visible cases that also have important reverberations through different segments of society. Patent rights, plea bargains, and the power of unions of government workers may not captivate the mass public, but they matter a great deal to corporations, criminal defendants, and the huge number of public employees in the United States.
This chapter will provide an opportunity to review more fully the impact of Justice Gorsuch --- his judicial philosophy and his effect on the norms of the Court --- as well as the extent to which Justice Kennedy acts as the decisive vote in determining the direction of the justices’ policymaking.