Supreme Court Closes Term With Major Wins and Losses for Trump

A term that cut both ways

The Supreme Court closed its 2025-26 term on Tuesday with a burst of decisions that handed President Donald Trump some of the most consequential rulings of his second term — and some of its sharpest rebukes.cbsnews In the most-watched case, a six-justice majority struck down Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship, finding it violated the 14th Amendment; Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court that the Reconstruction-era promise of citizenship extended to "every free-born person in this land" and that the court was keeping that promise.cbsnews The same cross-ideological coalition also blocked his campaign finance allies from striking down spending coordination caps with federal candidates, overturned limits on mail-in ballot grace periods, and declined to hear Trump's appeal of the $5 million E. Jean Carroll verdict.cbsnews +1

Tariffs, the Fed, and the firing power

The term's most economically significant decision came in February, when the court ruled 6-3 in Learning Resources v. Trump that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the president to impose tariffs — an outcome that effectively voided billions of dollars in sweeping levies and triggered a wave of refund claims from U.S. importers.cbsnews On Monday, the court further constrained Trump's trade ambitions by blocking his attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook in a 5-4 ruling, with Roberts writing that allowing the removal would "transform the Federal Reserve's for-cause protection into at-will employment" and contradict the nation's tradition of central-bank independence.cbsnews +1

Where Trump prevailed

The president did score substantial victories. The court's conservative majority voted 6-3 in Trump v. Slaughter to overrule a 91-year-old precedent and give the president broad authority to fire commissioners at independent agencies including the FTC — a decision Roberts said was necessary to keep "subordinates who exercise the President's power" accountable to the executive.cbsnews The justices also upheld state laws banning transgender athletes from women's school sports teams, allowed the administration to terminate Temporary Protected Status for more than 350,000 Haitian and Syrian immigrants, and cleared a redistricting map in Alabama that reduced majority-Black representation.cbsnews +1

A president at odds with his own appointees

The mixed ledger exposed an unusual dynamic: several of Trump's most cherished priorities have failed at a court dominated by conservatives, many of them his own nominees.politico White House press secretary Abigail Jackson pointed to the agency-firing ruling as a landmark win, but Trump himself had raged on social media weeks earlier that Republican-appointed justices owed him loyalty and suggested he should be the one wanting to "pack the court."politico With midterms approaching and several consequential new cases already added to next term's docket — including a dispute over proof of citizenship to vote — the relationship between the White House and the Roberts court looks set to remain tense.scotusblog