WASHINGTON

Nearly seven months have passed since the Supreme Court heard arguments about public school integration plans. A decision, it seems, is finally at hand.

Whether school districts can use race as a factor in assigning students to schools is the biggest unresolved issue among the eight remaining cases. But as the court enters what is expected to be the final week of its term, several other important topics loom. They include disputes over limits on speech, separation of church and state and executing the mentally ill.

The court's final days are being watched perhaps even more closely than usual this year because this is the first full term for Chief Justice John Roberts and the current lineup of justices.

Decisions so far in cases on abortion, discrimination and the rights of defendants have put the court on a more conservative footing with the addition of President Bush's two appointees, Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.

"It will tell us so much more about the Roberts court when we see decisions on hot-button issues like race and religion," said Thomas Goldstein, a Washington lawyer who argues before the court and follows it closely.

It is typical for justices to leave some of the hardest cases to the end, writing opinions that have been the subject of lengthy negotiations and that often are accompanied by multiple dissents and concurrences.

"The court may be the least dangerous branch, but it doesn't want to be the least interesting, said Douglas Kmiec, a Pepperdine University law professor and former Republican administration official.

"Holding the most compelling matters to the end is also a function of legal difficulty, and of course, it also bolsters and reaffirms the court's importance," he said.

The court last tackled the topic of race and education in 2003, upholding the consideration of race in admissions to the University of Michigan law school.

Since then, however, the author of that opinion, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, has retired. Alito took her place.