The Supreme Court will hear 48 cases this term.

The court will soon decide, for example, whether to hear the Bush administration's appeal of a lower court decision barring the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public school classrooms because of the phrase "under God." Another administration appeal seeks review of a ruling that doctors have a right to discuss with their patients the medical uses of marijuana.

In addition, cases challenging aspects of the detention policies the federal government adopted after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have recently been filed or will shortly reach the court.

Of the cases already accepted for decision, three in addition to the campaign finance case stand out as raising questions of intensely practical as well as theoretical significance. They address issues of church and state, state versus federal power, and partisan politics.