The current Acting Solicitor General is Sarah Harris, a former Thomas clerk. She gave notice that the Trump Administration is thinking about or is changing gears on a few cases. This is normal behavior with a change of administration. Expect more of this in the future.
The Supreme Court granted three more cases in part to address a dispute involving funding of a charter school. It provides an opportunity to continue to weaken the separation of church and state, which hinders free exercise too in the process.
(Barrett recused. The conservatives don't say why unlike the liberals so we can only guess why.)
The Monday Order List is generally a housekeeping matter without anything much of note. Barrett didn't explain why she didn't take part in something. Thomas (with Alito) cites what they think is an abuse of habeas/ignoring the limits of AEDPA.
(Did Thomas want to find an answer to a recent opinion that held a lower court misapplied the rules against the defendant? Recall even Alito disagreed with the dissent, that time joined by Gorsuch.)
Monday's Order List is the last official action of the Supreme Court until late February. They have a public non-argument session (often for swearing-in lawyers) and a Friday conference on February 21st. Then, it is back to oral arguments for two more weeks.
The first execution of the year is on January 31st and we will see if there is any final SCOTUS appeal. There also will be other miscellaneous orders and SCOTUS-related actions until they come back.
Steve Vladeck discusses how the Supreme Court in the past few years has decided many more federal government claims, raising the temperature.
ETA: SCOTUS added another case (they usually do this on Friday; was it missed?) for argument, again speeding things along so they can hear it this term.