WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is about to issue dozens of decisions that include hot-button political issues such as abortion, gun rights and a criminal case against Donald Trump — a treacherous path for an institution that has spent recent years navigating criticism of its decisions and judicial ethics.

The justices for the first time adopted a nonbinding code of conduct during their current term, in the wake of ProPublica articles that this week won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for revealing “how a small group of politically influential billionaires wooed justices with lavish gifts and travel.”

Those stories prompted Senate Democrats to advance for the first time a bill to spell out Supreme Court ethics and launch two committee investigations into alleged ethical lapses by Justice Clarence Thomas, while they contend the 6-3 conservative majority has issued decisions that aligned with Republican policy goals.

Over the last three years the Supreme Court has seen a consistent drop in its approval ratings, with polls by Gallup and Pew Research Center showing the court with as much as a historically high 59% disapproval rating.

Charles Geyh, a law professor at Indiana University who specializes in judicial ethics, is among legal experts who said public approval is uniquely important for a court that relies on other branches to enforce its rulings.

The court’s recent decisions overall have made it particularly vulnerable to ethics complaints, Geyh said, and the public is already primed to see the conservative-controlled court as acting on personal beliefs rather than impartial concerns of the law.

“What we’ve seen, I think, in the years leading up to this, was the court really being nose blind to how it was perceived and being insufficiently attentive to the fact that its legitimacy is at risk, because of the decisions it’s rendering,” Geyh said. “It’s perceived as a political body with an agenda which is diminishing its legitimacy.”

The court will issue rulings before the conclusion of the term at the end of June that could reshape the nation’s laws on abortion and other key issues where they have already caused a political splash, as well as other issues such as whether cities can criminalize homelessness, the tax powers of Congress, and whether former President Donald Trump is immune to federal charges.

Those high-profile cases stem from the court’s own prior decisions to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion and expand gun rights — or tie into some of the controversy surrounding the court.

Numerous advocacy groups, including Move On, also protested Thomas’ participation in the case about whether Trump is immune, which could have an outsize impact on the election if it determines whether Trump faces trial before voters go to the polls.

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