The U.S. Supreme Court began a new term on Monday featuring blockbuster cases on Guantanamo prisoners and the death penalty, and it rejected some 2,000 appeals that had piled up during its summer recess. Returning to the bench, the nine justices also heard arguments on Washington state's primary election system and whether parents of disabled students can get reimbursed for sending their children to private schools.

Legal experts are watching this term to see the future direction of the highest U.S. court that has been closely divided, with a 5-4 conservative majority bolstered by President George W. Bush's two appointees -- Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.

The court will rule on whether the hundreds of detainees at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba can use American courts to challenge their indefinite confinement and on the current lethal injection method of execution.

The term that ended in June was marked by a sharp shift to the right on divisive social issues like abortion and civil rights law. Legal experts are divided on whether the trend will continue this term, an issue already being discussed in the November 2008 presidential race.

ROMNEY WOULD NAME STRICT CONSTRUCTIONISTS

In Boston, Republican candidate Mitt Romney said cases this term could dramatically affect the "lives of all Americans" and he vowed to name justices "in the strict constructionist mold" of Roberts, Alito and their fellow conservatives, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.