by Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisch | The Hill
The Supreme Court issued four rulings Thursday and will unveil more today. But the most closely watched and anticipated opinions remain behind the court’s curtain until next week or early July.
Metal barricades lined the streets outside the court Thursday, a sign of added security in a section of the nation’s capital accustomed to demonstrators, placards and protests.
Yet to be revealed: rulings on former President Trump’s claims to immunity from prosecution, legal options for Jan. 6 rioters, the opioid crisis, homelessness, social media and the power of administrative agencies.
As President Biden and Trump prepare to spar in the first of two presidential debates next week, the Supreme Court could rule whether (or when) Trump stands trial for alleged criminal schemes to try to hijack Biden’s victory in 2020.
A key backdrop in the presidential race are the justices, their ethics and their powerful impact on Americans’ lives. Biden and Vice President Harris have been campaigning this month to remind voters that the conservative majority on the Supreme Court two years ago this week overturned Roe v. Wade and gave 50 states the task of enacting abortion laws. A resulting patchwork of unpopular abortion bans is mobilizing voters and keeps the Supreme Court at the center of partisan turmoil. Trump has told other Republicans that the high court’s abortion ruling is costing the GOP. Abortion initiatives will be on November ballots in at least four states and perhaps more.
Clearly those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women in America,” Biden said during his State of the Union address in March.
“Women are not without electoral power — excuse me — electoral or political power,” the president added, referring to a line from Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion overturning Roe. “You are about to realize just how much you were right about that.”
- The New York Times: Here are the Supreme Court’s major rulings still pending this term and a summary of opinions already issued.
- SCOTUSblog: The high court this week added four cases to its docket next term.
On Thursday, justices upheld a tax provision for offshore earnings, which was enacted during Trump’s presidency. The dispute involved a one-time foreign income tax, but many viewed it as a broader challenge to ward off a wealth tax in a future Congress.
The New York Times: Democrats’ dream of a wealth tax is alive, for now.
The high court Thursday ruled for a former city council member in Texas, clearing the way for Sylvia Gonzalez, 76, to continue litigation to try to establish that she suffered political retaliation when she was arrested and charged in 2019 with tampering with government records. She argues she became a target when she criticized the city manager in Castle Hills, Texas. Justices ruled that a lower court had applied an “overly cramped” reading of its caselaw.
The Hill: In a 6-3 decision featuring illegal drugs and expert witnesses, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an appeal by a woman who claimed not to know she had drugs in her car. Justice Neil Gorsuch chastised the majority.
Meanwhile in Florida, federal Judge Aileen Cannon, who has been criticized in legal circles for her handling of the slow-moving Trump classified documents prosecution, was encouraged last year by two federal judges to turn down the case and hand it off to another judge. Her assignment raised eyebrows because she has scant trial experience and had previously shown unusual favor to Trump by intervening in a way that helped him in the criminal investigation that led to his indictment, only to be reversed in a sharply critical rebuke by a conservative appeals court panel.