Two federal appeals courts differed on the question in the cases that the justices considered and turned down on Monday.
Now the justices are considering interrogation tactics that sneak around it.
Distributive justice, on the other hand, considers the actual decision.
The justices may also consider that when scientists confront a problem, they collect all the information they can about it and then draw conclusions.
Ohio asked the Supreme Court to hear the case, and the justices will consider that request when they return from the summer recess.
The appointed justices, known as acting justices, are technically considered temporary but sometimes serve longer than a decade.
But justice does and should consider severity and scale of the offence.
The justices considered the case in their weekly closed-door conference four times since late January, an unusually long period of review at this stage.
The justices will consider the cases this month.
The justices will also consider whether legal immigrants can be removed automatically for offenses committed before the provision became law.