Supreme Court term expands Trump power despite tariff, birthright
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- Supreme Court completed its nine-month term with notable losses for Trump—including striking down his reciprocal tariffs for misusing presidential emergency powers—but experts say the 6-3 conservative court continued expanding executive authority overall.
- Federal Reserve won a major independence ruling: the court held Trump must clear congressionally mandated procedural hurdles before firing Fed Governor Lisa Cook.
- Trump v. Slaughter allowed the Trump administration to fire heads of executive branch agencies deemed independent by Congress, which Chris Edelson of UMass Amherst combined with 2024's Trump v. United States immunity ruling to warn of 'a kind of American monarch.'
- Birthright citizenship was struck down 5-4, with four justices embracing the administration's argument that the 14th Amendment has been misinterpreted for 150 years—framing Bowman of the University of Missouri called 'absolutely shocking' and predicted a 'years-long, maybe decades-long fight.'
- Immigration and TPS rulings went Trump's way: the court granted the president sole authority over Temporary Protected Status and let enforcement agents turn asylum seekers away before reaching US soil.
- VP JD Vance and other Republicans won a challenge lifting restrictions on political-party spending by wealthy donors, allowing unlimited contributions.
- Shadow docket activity surged to 63 decisions in the 2024–2025 term per a ProPublica analysis—the highest in two decades and exceeding the 56 merits docket decisions—with orders typically benefiting the Trump administration, including lifting bans on third-country deportations and ethnicity-based immigration stops.
Why it matters: Even when Trump loses the headline-grabbing fights, he is winning the structural ones: Slaughter plus Trump v. United States give the president sweeping control over executive agencies and immunity for official acts, while the shadow docket's 63 decisions—the highest in two decades—have consistently favored his administration without signed reasoning. The 4-justice minority embracing the administration's birthright citizenship argument signals that fight is far from over.
