The epochal U.S. Supreme Court term that concluded in June left many wondering how far and how fast the court’s conservative majority will go in delivering jolts to the nation’s legal system. The approaching term could provide the answers.

The new term will open as the court faces its lowest public approval and confidence ratings in decades. And it continues to operate under the shadow of the leaked abortion draft opinion in May that damaged internal relationships and cast the institution in many eyes as just another partisan branch of government.