The Roll Up: October 7, 2025 

TL;DR:  The first Monday in October marks the beginning of the new U.S. Supreme Court term each year, bringing with it anticipation about rulings to come from the high court. Despite the fact there are at least five major cases key to the Trump Administration's agenda before the court this term, social media engagement on the topic is lackluster. Here's what we know:

The start of a new Supreme Court term is a special time in Washington. The court typically takes July, August and September off to prepare for the term, something Chief Justice John Roberts found particularly important this year, saying in a C-SPAN interview back in May when referring to the court's upcoming break, "The great wisdom of Justice Louis Brandeis, who said he could the 12 months' worth of work in 10 month, but he couldn't do it in 12 months, I think that is actually right. That break is critical to maintaining a level of balance." 

With the break behind them, the court now has a docket with 31 cases already loaded and waiting to be heard. Among them are six cases covering five issues central to the Trump Administration: tariffs, transgender rights, gay rights (specifically related to conversion therapy), legislative redistricting and campaign finance. 

Despite the importance of these issues, social media has barely picked up on what lies ahead for the court. Using Rolli IQ, an analysis of the last month's posts shows little activity around the court's current docket. Of those five issues, the most active is, perhaps, the one with the least impact on social media users. Transgender rights comes out on top, still with a modest level of engagement as compared to other issues like inflation or use of the National Guard in American cities.

Rolli IQ Sentiment Summary for "supreme court" and "transgender"

The Rolli IQ AI picks up an interesting thread through the discussions that is not even related to the upcoming supreme court term. The AI, in its summary of social media sentiment on the topic, finds Twitter/X to contain a number of posts related to Sophie Roske (born Nicholas John Roske), a transgender woman who pled guilty of a plot to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2022. A federal court sentenced Roske last Friday, pushing the story back into the social media conversation. This story alone may be what drove "transgender" to be the top trending Supreme Court topic on social media over the past month. 

Rolli IQ AI Summary for "supreme court" and "transgender"

Trailing closely behind the transgender posts are those related to tariffs. But once again, the volume of engagement is less than impressive, with right around 250 thousand engagements over the past month. While that number is similar to the engagement level on the transgender posts related to the Supreme Court, Rolli AI shows these tariff posts to be much more targeted to be specifically about the tariff case before the court. 

Rolli IQ Sentiment Summary for "supreme court" and "tariffs"

It's easy to look deeper into the topics related to tariffs being discussed on social media using the Rolli IQ Topic Tree. You can see there's a healthy thread of people on both sides of the issue specifically discussing the Supreme Court's upcoming ruling. Posters are divided on the issue, with those in support of tariffs hoping the court will back the president, while those opposed worry the court will uphold the administration's move to levy tariffs and harm the economy.

Rolli IQ Topic Tree excerpt for "supreme court" and "tariffs"

But not all of the discussion of tariffs on social media in the past month has been court related. Rolli IQ shows there are plenty of ongoing discussions regarding public opinion or the political implications of the use of tariffs, or this example of perhaps the oldest debate about tariffs, their economic impact. 

Rolli IQ Topic Tree excerpt for "supreme court" and "tariffs"

Among the other three major issues coming before the court this term, Rolli AI shows none rises to even a moderate level of engagement. First up is redistricting, with less than 10 percent the engagement for tariffs. The case before the court deals with whether or not a state--Louisiana in this case--can racially gerrymander a congressional district in response to a federal court ruling the state is in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Though race and voting can be hot-button issues on social media, no one seems interested in talking about this case.

Rolli IQ Sentiment Summary for "supreme court" and "redistricting"

Likewise, another case before the court dealing with elections is getting a similar "meh" from social media users. This case asks whether some limits on coordinated campaign spending violate the First Amendment. This case, brought by Republicans to restrict limits on their spending, should be a big topic, at least on Twitter/X. But it's barely registering in Rolli IQ's analysis.

Rolli IQ Sentiment Summary for "supreme court" and "campaign finance"

Finally, the important case with the least engagement deals with gay rights, specifically whether a state ban on so-called "conversion therapy" is a violation of the First Amendment. Again, those on the right--who generally favor conversion therapy--should be taking more interest in this case, but Rolli IQ shows the online reaction is nearly flat. 

Rolli IQ Sentiment Summary for "supreme court" and "conversion therapy"

Looking more closely with the Rolli IQ Topic Tree, it's clear much of the online traffic on this subject is coming in the form of background reports on what conversion therapy is and why it's controversial.

Rolli IQ Topic Tree excerpt for "supreme court" and "conversion therapy"

The bottom line is that the analysis using Rolli IQ to look at social media posts regarding the new term for the U.S. Supreme Court shows a general lack of interest in the most important issues--at least to the Trump Administration--before the court this year. That's probably an indication the public doesn't look ahead to the court docket, but is much more likely to react to cases as they are argued and decided.