New U.S. top court term has abortion, race cases

The U.S. Supreme Court's new term has cases on abortion, the environment and racial diversity in schools, some of the country's most contentious social issues for a court primed to shift sharply to the right by President George W. Bush's conservative appointees.

The nation's highest court, with Bush's two appointees, could decide to limit or overturn recent precedents upholding abortion rights for women and programs to foster a racially diverse student body, legal experts said.

"The term is going to be a bellwether on the shift in the court's ideology. The court is revisiting a series of profound issues," said Tom Goldstein, a Washington lawyer who closely follows the court.