The Supreme Court Ran Wild Today. Let’s Get You Caught Up.

The Supreme Court handed down four major rulings today that neatly map onto three of the court’s top priorities: protecting big business, expanding gun rights, and deferring to Donald Trump—especially when it comes to making life miserable for immigrants. But before we get into each case, there’s something that the decisions show us right away. Three of the four were 6–3 rulings, and they come after a slew of other 6–3 decisions the court released earlier this week.

What’s so important about these decisions being split 6–3? 

In all but one of today’s rulings, the six justices in the majority were Republican presidents’ appointees, while the three in the minority were Democratic picks. What’s alarming isn’t just the clear ideological split, but the fact that the court’s conservatives went as far as they possibly could. As my colleague Mark Joseph Stern explains, the justices repeatedly reached expansive conclusions that did maximum damage to precedent, congressional authority, and civil liberties in ways that even previous Republican appointees once shied away from. The problem isn’t just that the court regularly divides 6–3; it’s that among those six conservatives, none seems inclined to check the others’ most sweeping ambitions.

Not great. But turning to the cases themselves, which big corporation did SCOTUS throw a lifeline this time? 

That would be Bayer, which makes the weedkiller Roundup. A Missouri man had sued, claiming a chemical in Roundup called glyphosate caused his cancer, and won $1.25 million in court. SCOTUS nixed that award, saying Bayer is protected because the Environmental Protection Agency hasn’t required a cancer warning for Roundup. (The EPA previously called glyphosate “unlikely” to cause cancer, but it has since withdrawn that finding. A 2015 World Health Organization report labeled the chemical “probably carcinogenic.”) The decision will likely domino, potentially knocking down thousands of similar lawsuits against Bayer. And despite being a 7–2 ruling that scrambled the usual ideological lines, it underscores a broader pattern: Under Chief Justice John Roberts, SCOTUS has repeatedly sided with corporate interests, expanding companies’ political power in cases like Citizens United and shielding them from regulation. As Christine Papas explains in Slate, Bayer’s victory recalls the strategy Big Tobacco companies used to limit accountability for their cancer-causing wares decades ago.

You mentioned guns. Is this the Hawaiʻi case youpreviewed last week?

Good memory. On the heels of an earlier ruling affirming drug users’ gun rights, the court’s Republican appointees struck down a law in the Aloha State that required prior permission to bring a firearm into places like gas stations and supermarkets. The three Democratic-appointed justices dissented, and Ketanji Brown Jackson accused her conservative colleagues of selectively applying their own guidelines for judging Second Amendment cases for the purpose of “protecting guns, not consistently preserving any principle of law.” For more on the ruling, MJS is here for you.

And the court once again helped Trump go after immigrants?

Twice over. In one of today’s rulings, SCOTUS let the administration physically block migrants seeking asylum from entering the U.S., reviving a restrictive border policy Trump used in his first term. In the second, the court let the administration revoke temporary legal protections that have let people from Haiti and Syria live and work in the U.S.

Tell me more about how that second ruling will affect immigrants …

Slate’s Alexis Romero explains that the decision could let Trump deport hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war, natural disasters, or other crises in their home countries. Its effects may not be limited to Haitians and Syrians, some of whom have been living here for more than a decade. The administration wants to strip the same protections from people who hail from about a dozen other places, too. And to add insult to injury, the court’s conservatives straightforwardly claimed that the administration’s efforts to deport Haitians “rest on race-neutral justifications,” ignoring Trump’s history of racist remarks about them and their country (you may remember when he falsely accused Haitians of eating people’s pets).

Read more Sam Alito Wrote One of the Cruelest Opinions of in Recent Memory

Want even more of our SCOTUS coverage, this time screen-free? Have a listen to the latest episode of Amicus, Slate’s podcast about the law.

And with that, you’re caught up. For your evening unwinding, might we suggest …

A review of a Supergirl movie that doesn’t quite fly? Milly Alcock is spunky and charismatic as Superman’s party-girl cousin. But DC’s latest installment lands like a big hunk of Kryptonite for the dream of a superhero franchise that can transcend the genre’s clichés, Slate’s Dana Stevens writes.

A fond farewell to a beloved Slate podcast? Outward is ending after eight years, so hosts Bryan Lowder, Christina Cauterucci, and June Thomas reunited for one last hurrah. Between the reminiscing, the three have a sharp discussion about whether the LGBTQ+ movement’s pursuit of “visibility” has been a political mistake.

How about a thank-god-this-isn’t-my-life request for advice? Jenée Desmond-Harris and Lizzie O’Leary talk out what to do about a disturbing revelation that upended a letter writer’s understanding of her marriage.

Or maybe—you guessed it—more World Cup? The U.S. takes the field against Turkey tonight at 10 Eastern, which is also when the better-than-expected Australia will face Paraguay. Before that, we have both Tunisia–Netherlands and Japan–Sweden at 7. Need something to read while you wait? My colleague Alex Kirshner wrote about @FreddyLA7, a German X user visiting the U.S. for the tournament whose admiring, travelogue-style posts about Taco Bell, state parks, and other Americana are going viral.

Finally, how to start your day off right: Our brand-new morning newsletter, Your Morning Slate, kicked off this week! Sign up here to get great recommendations and a quick tour of the best of Slate in your inbox. It goes great with coffee.

Read more Monsanto Wins at the Supreme Court Using Big Tobacco’s Playbook

OK, that’s it from me. Have a great night, and see you tomorrow.