Washington (CNN) The US Supreme Court offered new evidence on Tuesday that conservatives have exerted control and liberals are not going quietly, in a pair of 5-4 decisions that could explain the remarkably slow pace of decisions this session.

Earlier signs of a rightward shift were reinforced particularly as the majority shielded foreign corporations from certain lawsuits over human rights abuses. The opinions in that case -- subjected to oral arguments back in October -- played out over 85 fractious pages.

The latest actions give contours to the first full term of President Donald Trump's appointee, Neil Gorsuch, and come on the eve of oral arguments in what is arguably the most important case of the annual nine-month session.

The justices Wednesday will hear a challenge to Trump's travel ban on immigrants from select majority-Muslim countries. The dispute over this signature Trump initiative, a foundation of his 2016 campaign, could be the greatest test of the reconstituted Roberts Court's ideological divisions.

It is difficult to know the exact source of the delays -- the justices meet in private and require confidentiality among law clerks. But sufficient signs have emerged that the dueling ideological camps are engaged in especially protracted rounds of back-and-forth, attacking each other's legal rationales.

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