The Supreme Court gaveled in for its 2022 term on Monday, taking up a case over federal control over wetlands — and the justices will soon wade into hot-button issues over voting rights, affirmative action, legal liabilities for tech companies and religious liberty.

The 2022 term makes history: For the first time there are four women on the bench, with the addition of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black female justice on the court. She replaced Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who retired in June.

The U.S. Supreme Court opened what promises to be an eventful new term on Monday, hearing arguments in an environmental dispute, welcoming a history-making justice to the bench and taking up some new cases to be decided in the next nine months.

The Supreme Court began its new term Monday with a new justice on the bench, the public back in the courtroom and a spirited debate in a case that pits environmental protections against property rights.

The new member of the court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, wasted no time joining the lively give-and-take, asking questions throughout nearly two hours of arguments in the dispute over the nation’s main anti-water pollution law, the Clean Water Act.