In 2016 following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, a core group of U.S. Supreme Court justices worked hard to avoid a 4-4 riven court handling a docket of hot-button cases. Will the same dynamic emerge again in another eight-justice court?

Scalia’s death in February 2016 occurred in the middle of the October 2015 term, a docket flush with cases involving abortion, affirmative action, redistricting, religious objections to contraceptive health insurance, immigration policy and more. His successor, Justice Neil Gorsuch, did not take his seat until April 2017.