The 7-2 decision in Haaland v. Brackeen, rejecting a challenge to the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act, was one of three opinions released on Thursday. The justices also released a unanimous opinion in Smith v. United States, on the proper remedy when an appeals court determines tha...
Looking at the remaining cases, let's try to make some educated guesses:
November: Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Kavanaugh have not written an opinion yet. The four remaining cases are the big affirmative action cases (Harvard and UNC), and two rather technical cases (Jones v. Hendrix and Mallory v. Norfolk Southern). Kavanaugh's concurrence in Brackeen suggests that it's unlikely that we see a liberal decision in the affirmative action cases. Roberts is savvy enough to know that affirmative action isn't that popular and recent liberal rulings give him some room to make a conservative decision. I expect him to take at least one of those two cases.
December: Roberts, Kagan, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh have not written an opinion yet. The big cases are 303 creative, Moore v. Harper and United States v Texas. I expect Roberts to come up with something in Moore v. Harper that will not fully embrace ISL, but still give conservatives a win. Gorsuch is very opinionated about religious freedom and is likely to provide a setback to LGBT rights in 303 creative. Who knows what will happen in Texas case, though I somehow expect Kavanaugh to write that one given his interest in admin law.
April: Alito, Sotomayor, Kagan and Kavanaugh have not written yet. The interesting case here is Groff v. DeJoy, which I expect to be a narrow victory for Groff penned by Kagan.
The two student loan cases from Feb. 28 are going to be interesting from a standing perspective. I'm not putting money on anything, but I think a finding of standing in Biden v. Nebraska is a stretch under the Court's last 4-5 decades of standing jurisprudence. But they may bend over backwards for the litigant who's ineligible to have his loans forgiven in DOE v. Brown. If there's standing for anyone in either or both cases, the loan forgiveness program is probably toast.