One of the first cases that Justice Neil Gorsuch will hear on Monday at the U.S. Supreme Court involves a procedural issue in securities class actions, an area of law that the new justice once criticized as a “free ride to fast riches” for the plaintiffs bar.

To be sure, Gorsuch's views on securities class actions were expressed more than a decade ago while he was a lawyer in private practice representing both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Washington Legal Foundation. While on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, his class action rulings have been largely textualist, not ideological.

Still, California Public Employees' Retirement System v. ANZ Securities will give the securities bar its first glimpse of how Justice Gorsuch approaches issues that are esoteric on the surface but can greatly impact litigation strategy. CalPERS is hoping to reverse a July 8 ruling by the Second Circuit that dismissed its securities fraud lawsuit against the underwriters of Lehman Bros.' debt offerings.