Our government is still shut down, but that won't stop the kings and queens of America from holding court. This week, the Supreme Court begins their new session, and the docket looks like a Republican wish list of laws they'd love to see overturned. On Tuesday, the justices will hear oral arguments in McCutcheon v. FEC, which is another challenge to campaign contribution limits. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will take time off from keeping the government unfunded, to personally argue that billionaires should be able to dump even more money into our elections.

In addition, this term our nation's highest court will hear cases on abortion, affirmative action, labor laws, separation of church and state, and environmental regulation. And, the five conservative members of the Court could undo generations of work that was done improve our nation. By this time next year, fair housing laws could be eliminated, the EPA may be unable to regulate air pollution, our privacy rights could be further diminished, lawmakers could be allowed to advocate a particular religion, and US-based corporations could have the go-ahead to abuse workers in foreign countries.

It's almost as if the pro-corporate, billionaire-backed Tea Party hand picked these huge cases for consideration. Ironically, the government shut down may be the only thing that stands in the way of the conservative justices ruling in favor of their right-wing buddies. If the government funding bill is not passed, the Supreme Court may have to postpone hearings after this week. These cases are extremely important, and Supreme Court decisions can be nearly impossible to overturn. The kings and queens of our nation have amassed a huge amount of power, and it appears that five of them are about to use that power to screw over our nation.