00:00As we wait for the most consequential decisions of the Supreme Court term,
00:03it might be helpful to talk about the decisions they dropped yesterday,
00:07because for the president, it was a pretty mixed bag. The president scored a major victory with
00:12the justice's ruling 6-3 that he has the constitutional authority to fire members
00:16of the Federal Trade Commission. It doesn't sound sexy, but this is a huge change and a
00:20much broader interpretation of executive power. The ruling overturns a 90-year-old precedent
00:26that protected officials at independent agencies from being removed without cause.
00:30Trump celebrated that win, but the rest of the rulings weren't what he was hoping for.
00:34The court actually carved out the Federal Reserve in that ruling that I just mentioned about firing
00:40officials from independent agencies, which means Fed Governor Lisa Cook keeps her job.
00:45The court also rejected a challenge to Mississippi's law allowing mail-in ballots that are postmarked
00:50by Election Day to be counted for up to five days after polls close, a setback for Republicans who
00:55argued that Election Day should be the cutoff. No ballot by then, no vote. And the justices
01:00declined to take up Trump's appeal of the $5 million E. Jean Carroll's sexual abuse and defamation
01:06verdict, meaning the commander-in-chief will now have to pony up that dough. So that was Monday,
01:11but today will eclipse it, at least in terms of consequential rulings.
01:15The post-Washington bureau chief, Josh Christensen, has a preview.
01:18One of the most closely watched cases will be the Supreme Court's decision
01:23involving the challenge against President Trump's birthright citizenship executive order,
01:29which was going to end citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants and foreign tourists.
01:35This was something that the court heard oral arguments for back in April, and Trump, in fact,
01:42has predicted that the court will rule against his order, in which would be a blow to the second
01:48major policy that was challenged from his administration this year after the justices
01:54ended his reciprocal tariff regime back in February. The other cases that are going to be key will also be
02:07one involving laws in states such as Idaho and West Virginia that will be aimed at preserving
02:17biological females participating in sports together. And roughly half of U.S. states have similar laws
02:25on the books, whereas half do not. So this is something that could end up having a big effect
02:31on competition in those states that do not have laws like that. We're also looking at a case coming
02:39down, which was brought by Republican campaigns such as the National Republican Senatorial Committee
02:46to determine the limits of coordinated spending between official party campaign arms like themselves
02:55and individual candidates. If the high court ends up striking that down, that will be a boost to
03:01Republicans who have massively out-fundraised Democrats in 2025 and 2026.
03:07But once those opinions are all handed down, Tuesday in the final day, the court will enter its summer
03:13recess and we won't hear from the justices again until October 5th.
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