The Supreme Court on Monday opened what is likely to be an unusually consequential term with a pair of criminal justice cases and only eight justices on the bench.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 86, was in her usual spot at the chief justice’s left, despite dealing this summer with radiation treatment for a tumor on her pancreas. Ginsburg looked fit in her black robe and distinctive white jabot, and, as usual, was an early and aggressive questioner.

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Ramos’s lawyer, Stanford law professor Jeffrey L. Fisher, said that decision was an outlier and that the court in other contexts has endorsed the idea of unanimity in jury verdicts.

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“When the court says something is a fundamental rule under our way of doing criminal justice, the states have to follow that rule the same way as the federal government,” Fisher said.