The U.S. Supreme Court is jumping headfirst into turbulent waters with issues that have become politically divisive.

The 18th-century wartime authority to speed deportations known as the Alien Enemies Act is back in the high court’s hands.

Less than two weeks after the Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump to employ the controversial authority, the issue was literally rocketed back to the justices in a short fuse appeal.

The consequences are enormous. So what’s really at issue here?

Since last November’s election, the Democratic Party has been wrestling with several questions: How to bring about a leadership change? How to develop an effective message that resonates with the public? How to get districts that President Donald Trump won to rebrand with the mid-term elections on the horizon?

On Capitol Hill, several younger freshmen senators are gaining prominence, and there are hints the party’s No. 2 leader may retire, although Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin has not officially tipped his hand on re-election plans.

Even so, there are several Democrats in the Prairie State exploring election campaigns to succeed Durbin.

Members of the legal community say that President Donald Trump’s “multi-pronged assault” on the Department of Justice, the nation’s major law firms, and the judiciary undermines central tenets of the U.S. justice system.

And they don’t stop there.

They say the damage will be generational and raises concerns about the judiciary’s independence.

At the root of what’s going on is retribution.

The Trump administration continues its promise of a mass deportation of immigrants it says are in the country illegally. The problem is that the administration is not going after just the criminal element it said it would target.

Look at the headlines on an almost daily basis. There are documented cases of people with U.S. passports -- and no criminal background -- being arrested by immigration officials.

Native Americans from the Navajo Nation were arrested, along with some people from Puerto Rico.

People who were in the United States lawfully and didn’t pose a threat or a risk to public safety have been caught up in sweeps by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

The dragnets continue to target immigrant and minority communities. And the chilling headlines indicate many of the raids seem indiscriminate.

The Democrats' downward spiral seems to continue as the party is in disarray. Their message... oh wait, they have none.

Some are wondering out loud: “Are the Dems broken beyond repair?”

Well, look at history and you’ll find out that politics is cyclical.

Time to convene the class? OK, here we go. Turn back the clock to the mid-90s. The Republican Party was not unlike the current-day GOP. They wandered as the walking wounded in a meandering political circle. Ideas? They didn’t have any.

Some of the key cases before the nation’s highest court come into focus this week on Politics & Power.

Reverse discrimination

One of the cases being tackled has to do with reverse discrimination. At question is whether the U.S. Supreme Court will remove the additional “background circumstances” requirement.

Suing gun manufacturers

The second case up for discussion has to do with lawsuits against manufacturers and distributors of firearms.

The government of Mexico filed a $10 billion lawsuit against Smith & Wesson alleging that they are aiding and abetting Mexican cartels in obtaining firearms.

The question at hand: Can Mexico bring such a case?

Nuclear waste storage

The justices will also tackle a question about nuclear waste as the nation continues a frustrating search for storage sites.

Complicated politics have gotten in the way of addressing the problem since the advent of nuclear power in the last century.

The question at hand is whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should restart plans to temporarily store nuclear waste at sites in rural Texas and New Mexico.

The war between Ukraine and Russia is at a critical crossroads. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are pushing to end the war.

But the reality is that within that push lies a dangerous fault line that opens further as Trump rushes to end the war.

Issues concerning both Ukrainian and European security mean a quick fix might not be possible. Not helping matters, officials from Kyiv and Europe are excluded from the peace talks.

Word is Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis is seriously considering a gubernatorial run in 2026. (Although she has not announced anything official yet).

Reports first surfaced in an NBC News exclusive report a couple of weeks ago when word got out that Republican donors in Palm Beach County openly discussed the prospect of Casey DeSantis succeeding her husband Ron in the governor’s office in Tallahassee. (By the way, did you know she used to work here at News4JAX?)

He is the world’s richest man. He is also the president’s largest campaign benefactor. His companies have grown on government contracts. And he is calling a lot of the shots in Washington.

He is Elon Musk an unelected businessman who has spent the last couple of weeks with his allies tearing through Washington causing confusion and chaos in government agencies.

Among the questions begging to be asked: How can he wield that kind of power? How can he run roughshod over laws and programs set up by Congress?

There are obvious conflicts of interest. Why are they not being questioned?

There are indications that the tech billionaire is getting reminders from the White House that he still needs to report to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

In fact, President Donald Trump suggested just that publicly and aides have reported he said the same thing. Musk may not prefer it that way.

That said, he has wide latitude to slash spending and make changes to the way the federal government operates. And he is doing it at a rapid, even breakneck speed.

The clock is tick-tocking on the Supreme Court’s latest calendar. Several things before the nation’s highest court have national significance.

First, let’s revisit what’s happening with the social media site TikTok. On Jan. 20, the Supreme Court upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary-Controlled Applications Act. It’s the law that requires Chinese government–controlled corporation Bytedance to divest TikTok or have the application barred from U.S.-based platforms

But President Donald Trump signed an executive order pausing the TikTok ban. It provided a liability shield to business partners of the popular video app.

What is interesting about the court’s decision is what the Supreme Court did not do.