WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will close out oral arguments for the term this week with two high-profile cases: whether federal law guarantees access to abortion in emergency rooms and whether former President Donald Trump is immune to federal criminal charges.

The cases are emblematic of a term in which the conservative-controlled court is poised to broaden its impact on American law and politics in ways that could reverberate for years — as well as the remaining months before this fall’s presidential election.

This term doesn’t have cases that could match up to the court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, said Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University.

But the court’s decision in the Trump immunity case could come close, she said. Oral arguments in that case are scheduled for Thursday, the last in a term that could reshape abortion access, gun rights, the balance between federal agencies and the courts, and more.

“I think the election year adds to the significance of it,” Levenson said of the Trump case. “I mean, you can’t take the intellectual issues in the Trump case and say, ‘Well, those are interesting issues.’ We have one here where there can be a chain reaction that actually affects an election. That’s beyond the usual impact, the direct impact that we see from the Supreme Court.”

After Thursday’s arguments, all that remains for the court are about four dozen cases argued this term on which the court has yet to decide. The justices are expected to issue decisions before the conclusion of the term at the end of June.

The Supreme Court’s remaining cases this term deal with the fallout of previous decisions like Dobbs or affect how the federal government would work, such as a case that could change the balance of power between courts and federal agencies.

“There are some reasonably big cases still to be decided. That’s not unusual,” Levenson said. “But we will have some real blockbusters in there too.”

Trump immunity

The most high-profile oral arguments will be over whether Trump’s presidency makes him immune to federal charges tied to his effort to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.

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