Just as he was during the Supreme Court's term that ended in early July, Chief Justice John Roberts has emerged as the deciding vote when disputes over the coronavirus pandemic end up in court.

Since April, the high court has seen a stream of emergency appeals to overturn public-health decisions by lower courts involving voting rights, prison conditions and religious exercise.

The eight associate justices generally have divided along ideological lines, with liberals typically voting to uphold measures intended to combat the spread of Covid-19, and conservatives the opposite. The votes seem to mirror the partisan divide in the general public over public-health policy. Ninety percent of Democrats surveyed in a WSJ/NBC News poll last month, for instance, said they preferred a candidate who focused mostly on public-health measures to stop the coronavirus, while more than half of Republicans preferred one who focused mainly on reopening the economy.