The Supreme Court concluded its 2025-26 term Tuesday with decisions that both constrained and expanded President Donald Trump’s authority, according to a Wall Street Journal newsletter.
In the term’s final opinion, the court ruled that the White House cannot pare back birthright citizenship. The decision was the third time this year the high court placed “pretty stark curbs” on the Trump administration’s policies, according to the Journal’s James Romoser.
Earlier this week, the court ruled 5-4 against Trump’s effort to block states from counting late-arriving mail-in ballots, protecting access to mail-in voting. On Monday, in a separate 5-4 ruling, the court blocked Trump’s attempt to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, preserving the Federal Reserve’s structure, which limits the president’s ability to fire its governors. Both 5-4 vote counts were documented in earlier MSI reporting on the week’s Supreme Court decisions.
The court also declined without comment to hear Trump’s appeal of a $5 million defamation judgment in the E. Jean Carroll case, according to earlier MSI reporting.
The same term produced major expansions of presidential authority, according to the Journal. The court “has given President Trump wide latitude to expand the power of the executive branch,” the Journal’s newsletter reported. Prior MSI reporting documented that the court ruled presidents have broad authority to fire leaders of independent regulatory agencies.
Trump plans to depart the White House on Wednesday for a trip to Medora, North Dakota, where he is scheduled to tour the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library and deliver remarks, according to the Journal.