The sudden death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia means the Supreme Court is now evenly divided between conservatives and liberals. And that means there could be more 4-4 decisions coming, particularly on consequential cases.

In the case of a tie, the lower court's decision is upheld and no precedent is set. The Court traditionally does not issue an opinion.

The Court would have the option to rehear the cases in the following term, and SCOTUSBlog publisher Tom Goldstein argues that's the most likely eventual outcome. But the Court has a huge amount of discretion on what to do next, and if Congress doesn't confirm a replacement quickly, that could affect the likelihood of the cases being reargued.

Here are some of the most consequential cases still pending before the Court. It's not clear that all of them were likely to result in 5-4 splits, but here's what could happen if they end up as a 4-4 tie: