The US Supreme Court opens its new term on Monday with the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, gun rights and the fate of climate change lawsuits on the docket.

The session opens one month ahead of a crucial midterm vote that could see President Donald Trump's Republican Party lose its majority in the House of Representatives and possibly even the Senate.

Losing control of Congress would force the president to have to rely even more on the conservative-dominated top court to push through his policies.

Not that it has always been in lockstep with Trump.

Trump suffered stinging defeats this year over his tariffs and bid to restrict birthright citizenship, sparking tirades by the president against the court, particularly the three justices he appointed during his first White House term.

"I gave them the position of a lifetime, and they vote against me often," he told Time magazine in a rec...