The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a series of important decisions related to President Donald Trump on Monday, including three rulings against him and one ruling in his favor.
The issues decided range from the president’s power over independent government regulators to voting rights and sexual assault sentencing.
Here’s what we know about each of these rulings.
Federal firing regulations overturned
In a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court strengthened President Trump’s executive power to fire employees of independent government agencies without giving cause.
The court upheld the Republican president’s firing of Democratic Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, expanding the president’s authority over the government and doing so by overturning a 1935 precedent that authorized Congress to remove the leaders of certain regulatory agencies at the president’s will.
President Trump fired Slaughter last year without giving a reason. It appears that the two parties had conflicting opinions over policy. Lower courts upheld her argument that the measure violated rules set by Congress to protect employees at dozens of independent government agencies.
The Supreme Court’s ruling giving President Trump the power to fire her without cause is expected to have far-reaching implications. Since beginning his second term in January last year, President Trump has sought to transform the U.S. government, installing political allies in key positions and aggressively expanding his executive powers.
President Trump praised the ruling in a social media post, saying it expanded presidential powers “at a time when we need it most.”
“It is a great honor to be the sitting president who won this historic and unprecedented ruling, one of the most significant presidential powers ever granted,” he wrote.
In a scathing dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the majority’s opinion upends the separation of powers.
“Today, the majority is replacing 90 years of proven and workable practice with a half-baked theory of executive power that is all-encompassing, but with necessary but undefined exceptions,” Sotomayor wrote.
“One thing is clear from now on: chaos will continue.”
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren also condemned the opinion, saying, “Donald Trump has fired Democratic appointees and seized control of once-independent institutions, making them serve him and his billionaire friends instead of the American people.”
Preventing the dismissal of Fed Governor Lisa Cook
However, the court did not allow President Trump to remove Federal Reserve President Lisa Cook as an exception to the above ruling, upholding its 5-4 decision to maintain central bank independence in the face of an unprecedented challenge by the president.
Since the creation of the central bank in 1913, no president has sought to remove a Fed director. And the court ultimately blocked President Trump from firing Cook for now, providing a safeguard for the Fed in particular.
President Trump had cited unproven allegations of mortgage fraud as justification for his firing, which Cook denies. Cook claimed that differences in monetary policy were an excuse to fire him as President Trump presses the Fed to cut interest rates.
The United States Central Bank is a nonpartisan institution that determines monetary policy for the world’s largest economy. Governors are appointed by the president and vetted by the Senate.
The court specifically addressed the importance of the Fed’s independence.
“Not only the fact of independence but also the appearance of independence are key to the design of the Federal Reserve System,” the committee’s majority opinion said.
“There is no reason to leave the public in limbo or to call into question the status of one of our country’s (and the world’s) most important financial institutions,” Chief Justice John Roberts said in his ruling.
The court decided the case “on the narrow basis that the President failed to afford Mr. Cook the procedural protections afforded to him by statute,” the decision states.
Mr. Cook welcomed the decision, saying it was an “affirmation” of the central bank’s independence, but Mr. Trump immediately went on the offensive.
“We will take immediate and appropriate steps to ensure that those who committed the wrongdoing do not make important decisions regarding the welfare of the United States of America,” he posted on social media.
It is unclear what President Trump intends for this or what further action the government will take.
Approval of mail-in voting rules
In a further blow to Trump, the court upheld a state law that allows mail-in ballots that were mailed but received after Election Day to be counted.
The 5-4 ruling rejected the Republican National Committee’s challenge to a Mississippi law that allows mail-in ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive within five business days of Election Day.
The ruling overturned a lower court ruling that deemed Mississippi’s law inconsistent with U.S. statutes governing the timing of federal elections for president, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.
President Trump has long been a vocal critic of mail-in voting, claiming without evidence that it was subject to fraud and contributed to his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
The Republican president signed an executive order in March to tighten rules for mail-in voting, but it has been blocked by a lower court.
In a post on Truth Social, President Trump called the high court’s ruling on mail-in voting a “tremendous loss” to “voter rights” and called on Congress to pass broader voting restrictions called the “SAVE America Act.”
Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, both conservatives, joined the Supreme Court’s three liberal justices in voting to uphold the Mississippi law.
Under the U.S. Constitution, states retain broad control over election administration.
“Federal law dictates when a ballot must be cast, and state law dictates when a ballot must be received,” said Barrett, who wrote the majority opinion.
“Federal Election Day law does not prevent Mississippi from counting absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day and received up to five days thereafter,” Barrett wrote. “There is nothing in the federal Election Day Act that requires ballots to be received by Election Day.”
Democrats are more likely than Republicans to use mail-in voting. The practice has become more widespread during the coronavirus pandemic, and Trump himself has taken advantage of it.
Opinion polls show that his Republican Party faces a serious threat of losing its narrow majority in Congress, especially the House of Representatives, in November’s midterm elections.
If Democrats gain a majority in the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, they have already indicated their intention to block Mr. Trump’s policies and may move to impeach him. He was impeached twice during his first term.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision.
“The Supreme Court upheld America’s bedrock principle that if you vote on time, your vote counts,” Schumer said in a statement.
“Participation in a democracy should never be limited by your race, where you live, or how you vote.”
President Trump’s sexual abuse conviction confirmed
In a further blow to Trump, the court rejected the president’s effort to overturn a jury verdict that said he must pay E. Jean Carroll $5 million for sexually abusing and defaming her.
On May 9, 2023, a federal civil court in Manhattan found President Trump liable for sexually assaulting a magazine columnist at a New York department store in 1996.
President Trump pushed back against the Supreme Court’s decision not to review the jury’s verdict.
“Surprisingly, the Supreme Court refused to ‘review’ a sham lawsuit brought against me by a woman I’ve never met (decades-old celebrity photos alongside her husband don’t count!),” President Trump posted on social media.
“I will continue to fight with all my might against this weapon and legal action against me, including the ridiculous claims of defamation.”
Carroll wrote in a book published in 2019 that Trump sexually assaulted her in a fitting room 23 years ago. The billionaire called her a “shit job” and Ms Carroll said it was defamatory.
“Today’s Supreme Court decision categorically confirms the unanimous jury verdict that President Donald J. Trump sexually assaulted and defamed E. Jean Carroll,” said Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney.
“His repeated efforts to appeal that verdict have all failed, and today’s sentence ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions.”
What else will the Supreme Court rule this term?
The Supreme Court will issue its opinion this week and will go on summer recess until October.
On Tuesday, the justices are scheduled to decide on a challenge to Trump’s executive order abolishing birthright citizenship, a provision of the U.S. Constitution that grants automatic citizenship to anyone born within the country’s borders, regardless of the citizenship or immigration status of their parents. The United States has held this precedent for more than 150 years.
The court is also scheduled to rule on two cases in which the state banned transgender girls from participating in girls’ collegiate sports. It is also expected to coordinate directly with political parties to decide on Republican-led challenges to how much money political candidates can spend.
