As the U.S. Supreme Court opens its October 2009 Term, the AEI Legal Center will host its annual preview of the upcoming cases and questions (with an occasional backward glance at the Court's 2008 Term). As in prior years, a panel of distinguished experts and practitioners will discuss the key business cases, from antitrust law to torts and federal preemption. Recent events—including the financial crisis, a new administration, the arrival of a new solicitor general, and the changed composition of the Court—lend special interest to the justices' future course. What do those changes portend for the Court and its civil docket? Should we brace ourselves for heightened conflict and confrontation between a more populist, proregulatory politics and a (still) conservative Court?

AEI's John G. Searle Scholar, Michael S. Greve, will moderate a panel discussion featuring John P. Elwood, former deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel; Brian Brooks, a partner and appellate lawyer at O'Melveny & Myers; and Jeremy Rabkin, professor of law at George Mason University.