Supreme Court's blockbuster week will put Trump's power to the test
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The Supreme Court's final week of the term is shaping up to be a blockbuster, with several remaining cases carrying major implications regarding the scope of President Trump's power.
The big picture: Three of the eight cases awaiting ruling hinge on what Trump — and future presidents — can or can't do in office, including determining who gets to be an American and what checks there are for a president's ability to fire federal officials.
- Trump is no stranger to pushing the limits as commander in chief, and told "The Axios Show" last week that there are "no limits" to his power in office since going to war with Iran.
- But federal courts have demarcated the limits to what a president can do, often to Trump's ire.
Driving the news: Perhaps the biggest decision remaining before the court is Trump's attempt to end birthright citizenship.
- Immigration advocacy groups and constitutional scholars tell Axios that the Constitution's 14th Amendment and subsequent legal precedent clearly protect the right to citizenship for children born in the U.S.
- But if the court were to gut those protections, there would be "mass chaos at every hospital in the United States," warns Todd Schulte, the president of immigration and criminal justice advocacy group FWD.us.
- "A patchwork level of citizenship loss and stateless children being born across the United States would fundamentally alter the day-to-day lives of tens of millions of Americans," he adds.
- At oral arguments earlier this year, key justices appeared skeptical of the government's case, but no one knows how they will ultimately rule.
Meanwhile, the court is also weighing whether the central bank and independent agency commissioners are insulated from the president's political whims to say, "You're Fired!"
- "Trump has attempted to exercise an extremely aggressive and expansive view of presidential authority, under which he can ignore or rewrite laws that Congress has passed and even rewrite the Constitution itself," says Thomas Wolf, the director of democracy initiatives at the Brennan Center.
- The court appeared skeptical of Trump's ability to boot Cook, whose attorneys argued siding with the president would undermine the Fed's independence.
- But the court seemed more open to Trump firing FTC members, which would be a blow to a 90-year-old precedent guarding independent agency commissioners from political firings.
The stakes of the Supreme Court's other upcoming decisions are also immensely high. Here's what else is on the justices' plate:
Election law
The Supreme Court must weigh in on a dispute over a Mississippi law allowing election officials to count mail-in ballots received up to five days after Election Day.
- Striking down Mississippi's law could have implications for other states that have similar grace periods.
Also outstanding is a decision on a Republican challenge to limits on how much money political parties can spend in coordination with candidates.
- The Supreme Court upheld coordinated party expenditure limits in 2001.
Trans athletes
The court has outstanding cases over transgender athlete bans in Idaho and West Virginia, and the conservative justices seemed poised to uphold the bans.
- The court's decision could enshrine that Title IX does not mean transgender athletes can compete in sports aligning with their gender identity.
Geofencing and the Fourth Amendment
The justices were also posed with a question over whether a geofence warrant that led to a robbery conviction violated the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable searches or seizures.
- Per Brookings, the court does not seem poised to categorically reject or uphold the constitutionality of such warrants.
Go deeper: Supreme Court backs Trump on stricter asylum rules
