The Supreme Court of the United States announced on Monday that it has added two new cases to its upcoming docket. The first case involves a challenge to the admissions policies of a competitive middle school in a suburban Maryland county. This litigation is widely viewed as a follow-up to the Court’s 2023 ruling that struck down affirmative action in higher education, as it seeks to clarify the extent to which school districts may implement policies intended to foster student diversity.

The second case, Department of Justice v. Scott McNutt, addresses a 160-year-old federal law that prohibits the distillation of alcohol at home. The Court will examine whether this long-standing federal prohibition exceeds the government's constitutional authority. While the school admissions case focuses on the application of equal protection standards in public education, the distillation case centers on the limits of federal power over private activity. Both cases are expected to draw significant attention as the justices prepare for oral arguments, though they address entirely different areas of law and public policy.