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Supreme Court Takes Up Trump-Backed Cases Amidst Legal Battles
Confirmed
In Short: The new Supreme Court term began on October 5, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is expecting another busy term, possibly surpassing last year's record of six cases decided on the merits docket.
The new Supreme Court term began on October 5, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is expecting another busy term, possibly surpassing last year's record of six cases decided on the merits docket. By the end of September, the ACLU had 14 cases where they or their opponents were petitioning the Supreme Court to hear the case.
The Trump administration's immigration policies have been a focal point at the Supreme Court, with more likely to come this term. The ACLU is involved in Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District, a challenge to a Texas law requiring the display of a Protestant version of the Ten Commandments in public schools.
The Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority has issued rulings that have allowed the firing of thousands of federal workers, defunding of scientific research, and termination of certain temporary protected status designations for foreigners, according to Colorado Politics.
The Trump administration filed 19 emergency docket applications in its first 20 weeks last year, equaling the total filed by the Biden administration over four years, according to Georgetown University law professor Stephen Vladeck. During Trump's second term, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the administration 82% of the time, based on data from Scotusblog.
A California couple's surrogate, who refused their wishes to have an abortion, is asking the Supreme Court to intervene in a custody dispute over a 4-week-old child born with a serious heart defect. The child was born via surrogacy, and the couple, Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar, are asking the court to recognize them as the parents, while the surrogate, McKenna West, is seeking custody.
West filed an emergency appeal after lower courts blocked officials from immediately carrying out a policy adopted after an executive order from President Donald Trump. The policy determined that sex-trait-modification surgeries, hormone interventions, and social accommodations could no longer be justified as treatment for gender dysphoria.
The Supreme Court granted an emergency request filed by the government after lower courts ruled that the Trump administration’s changes to a federal database were likely unlawful. The ruling, which was divided 6-3 along ideological lines, allows states to use federal citizenship data to clean up voter rolls, according to Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project.
The formerly quiet summer months after the court finishes its opinions in all argued cases no longer exist, according to NPR. The court is now active year-round, with cases ranging from environmental regulations to political ad rates.
Republican campaign committees are seeking emergency relief from a ruling limiting who qualifies for broadcasters' lowest unit rates. The appeals court ruled that federal law only allows candidates to qualify for these rates, not political-party coordinated spending.
Solicitor General John Sauer argued that once ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, they cannot be retrieved. He said Democrats are preparing for more than 100 ways to undermine the right to vote and steal the election, as Trump did in 2020.
In an emergency request, Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway’s office asked the court to suspend a state Supreme Court ruling that blocked a map used during Missouri's August primary. People Not Politicians is asking the high court to clarify that its Sept. 10 stay still applies.
An emergency bid has been filed challenging Paramount’s $110 billion megadeal for Warner Bros. The court said the evidence the court said did not exist was already in its record.
What this adds
The ACLU is involved in 14 cases where they or their opponents are asking the Supreme Court to take the case, according to the ACLU.
The Trump administration's immigration policies have faced significant legal challenges, with lower courts ruling against the administration 94 percent of the time between May 1 and June 23, according to Stanford political scientist Adam Bonica.
The Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority has issued rulings that have allowed the firing of thousands of federal workers, defunding of scientific research, and termination of certain temporary protected status designations for foreigners, according to Colorado Politics.
What's confirmed
- A California couple’s surrogate, who refused their wishes to have an abortion, is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a custody dispute over the 4-week-old child who was born with a serious heart defect.
- McKenna West filed the emergency appeal Wednesday amid a legal battle over surrogacy and abortion that has won the support of Republican officeholders and anti-abortion groups.
What's still developing
- The Roberts Court, with its 6-3 majority of Republican appointees, continued to issue partisan opinions that pleased the wealthy interests that fund the conservative legal movement while abetting the new Trump administration on its lawless rampage against immigrants, federal agencies, Congress, the courts, and natural born citizens.
- Less than eight months later, the Trump administration asked the same court to intervene after a federal judge ordered the Department of Education to continue funding grants that it had terminated.
- Gilkar called West unstable during a hearing Aug. 25 in Dallas, telling the court she was trying to take their baby away.
- What the companies were telling the public for years, he says, is "the opposite of what the company's own scientists knew, and the local cost of that deception." That said, however, most court observers see the case as an uphill battle for environmentalists.
- Jason Snead accused Democratic-led states of resisting new USPS mail-ballot standards, while attorney Gregory Teufel argued the federal court overstepped its authority in blocking their implementation.
- "The Government has made the showings necessary for a stay, so I respectfully dissent," Alito wrote.
- “The referendum petition was legal, sufficient, and timely, and the secretary incorrectly concluded otherwise,” Judge Ginger Gooch wrote for the court.