Shortage of cases at Supreme Court?

Justices are running well behind in filling their argument calendar for the term that begins in the fall. They have accepted 18 cases, compared with 27 by this time last year and 32 in 2004.

The court has nearly 30 cases for which it has heard argument and must resolve before ending this term, so the justices may not be anxious to add new contentious issues for the fall, Douglas Berman of OSU said.

"They may think there's some value in seeing how they work together in tough cases," he said.

A streak of unanimous opinions at the Supreme Court ended last week with a 5-4 ruling on whistle-blowers.

Before that ruling May 29, justices had handed down eight straight unanimous rulings. Roberts told law school graduates at Georgetown University last month that he was seeking greater consensus among the justices.