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This year is going to be an important one in the higher courts of the United States. The Atlantic gives you a quick rundown of all the major cases we have to look forward to, including:

Surveillance

We now are geared up to spend 2014 watching the kabuki dance of federal appellate practice unfold over the legality of the NSA’s bulk metadata telephony surveillance program. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will evaluate the work of (Bush nominee) U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who first declared the government spy program “likely unconstitutional.” And the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in New York, will evaluate the work of (Clinton nominee) U.S. District Judge William Pauley who, with similar gusto, later declared the program both constitutional and necessary. Best guess? The two appeals courts will narrow the vast gulf between the two trial court rulings.

Women’s Rights

The coming year will bring still more litigation over women’s rights. The Supreme Court will hear two abortion-related cases in the next few months—one about a Massachusetts protest law designed to protect people around abortion clinics, and the other about an Oklahoma law designed to limit the use of abortion medicine. The justices also soon will consider accepting for review amore direct challenge to Roe v. Wade in an Arizona case. In Texas, meanwhile, litigation over a new law that requires doctors performing abortions to have visiting privileges at nearby hospitals is now before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. And in Iowa, there is a roiling fight over whether patients can receive abortion pills after consulting with doctors via videoconference.

Full story at The Atlantic.

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