Sept. 29, 2025, 8:00 AM EDT / Updated Sept. 29, 2025, 9:23 AM EDTBy Lawrence HurleyWASHINGTON — The Supreme Court justices are scheduled to meet in private on Monday to discuss hundreds of appeals that piled up during their summer recess, including Ghislaine Maxwell’s challenge to her criminal convictions for recruiting and grooming teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein.The court only takes up a tiny percentage of appeals and will likely announce a list of those it has agreed to hear later in the week. Four of the nine justices have to vote in favor of hearing a case for it to be taken up.A wide array of other cases are also scheduled to be discussed by the justices at what is known as the “long conference.” They include such issues as gun rights, social media company immunity and Covid-19 era vaccine disputes.Monday also marks 20 years since John Roberts became Chief Justice. The new nine-month Supreme Court term, when the court will begin hearing cases, officially starts on Oct. 6. Maxwell’s lawyers say that a deal Epstein made with prosecutors in Florida, in which the then-U.S. attorney agreed not to prosecute potential co-conspirators, should apply to one of the three counts in her case.Newly public emails reveal Epstein and Maxwell planned fertility procedure01:53The legal question is whether the terms of a so-called nonprosecution agreement apply only in the district where it was negotiated or also bind federal prosecutors nationwide. While the agreement with Epstein was made in Florida, Maxwell was prosecuted in New York.The Justice Department has urged the Supreme Court not to hear the case, with Solicitor General D. John Sauer noting, among other things, that under internal policies, the U.S. attorney would have needed to obtain permission from superiors if the agreement were to apply outside his district. There is no evidence that occurred, Sauer added.Epstein’s long history of abuse has surged back into the headlines this year as the Trump administration, in response to pressure from some of President Donald Trump’s own supporters, pledged to release new information about the episode.But the Justice Department and the FBI then said there was no Epstein “client list” or evidence he was blackmailing famous men. The government also said it is clear that Epstein killed himself in 2019, pushing back on unfounded conspiracy theories suggesting he was killed.This prompted a backlash against the Trump administration’s handling of the issue, including from Trump supporters. Trump himself was friendly with Epstein for many years before the two had a falling out. The U.S. attorney who oversaw the nonprosecution agreement with Epstein was Alex Acosta, who served as labor secretary in Trump’s first term.Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was previously a personal lawyer for Trump, this summer met with Maxwell for hours in an encounter that, at the time, was shrouded in secrecy.Maxwell was subsequently moved from a low-security prison in Florida to a lower, minimum-security prison camp in Texas. The Bureau of Prisons did not say why she was transferred.The Justice Department later released a full transcript and audio of Blanche’s interview with Maxwell.Maxwell was convicted in 2022 of three counts relating to her role in assisting Epstein in recruiting and grooming his victims, some of whom were as young as 14 years old. She would befriend the victims and then assist in transporting them to Epstein’s residences. She would also sometimes be present when the abuse took place, prosecutors alleged.Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison.Lawrence HurleyLawrence Hurley is a senior Supreme Court reporter for NBC News.