Supreme Court ready to tackle climate, immigration and gun rights. Here are 5 cases to watch

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When the U.S. Supreme Court returns Monday, the justices will kick off a new term featuring cases on climate change, gun rights, immigration and religious liberty.

The high court has agreed so far to hear 30 cases, after a summer that PBS News Supreme Court analyst and SCOTUSblog co-founder Amy Howe called not "much of a 'recess.'"

Historically, Supreme Court justices have a quiet summer after they've finished publishing the previous term's decisions in June. They then decide which cases they'll hear in the new term.

But a rising surge of petitions to the emergency docket, also known as the "shadow docket," mean justices must quickly issue temporary decisions while cases make their way through the lower court system. These decisions are usually unsigned and don't provide extensive explanations.

"Compared with past years, they hear relatively few cases on the 'merits,' and a lot of their work takes place on the emergency docket, which, although theoretically 'temporary,' can have long-term effects for the litigants involved," Howe said.

In September, for example, the high court temporarily blocked Trump's effort to restrict mail-in voting in an emergency docket ruling.

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