The Supreme Court is taking its time filling out its docket for the 2023-2024 term. 

Before they shuffled into the courtroom Monday morning to kick off the two-week October-November oral argument session, the justices issued a sleepy orders list from its Friday conference that included no new grants of certiorari, or review. Passing on appeals from Venezuela's state-owned oil company, an Oregon irrigation district and others, the justices seem to be in no rush to fill up their schedule for the remainder of the term. So far, they've agreed to hear 40 cases — nearly twenty shy of even last term's relatively light load. 

One rejected petition involved what Justice Sonia Sotomayor — the subject of this Supreme Court Brief — called a "consequential statutory interpretation question that has divided the courts of appeals."