By admin 
I warned you: late June is primetime for the Supreme Court. The justices came through again today, dropping major rulings about presidential power and voting rights.Let’s break them down.
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SCOTUS decisions about presidential power are usually good news for Donald Trump. Is that what happened today?
Kind of. Today’s two most important rulings both dealt with the same question: How much power should the president have over the federal bureaucracy? In one case, the court’s conservative majority ruled (in yet another 6–3 decision) that Trump can fire a top Federal Trade Commission official without cause, overturning decades of precedent. By extension, the court said, he can also dismiss officials at other formerly independent regulatory agencies. As my colleague Mark Joseph Stern explains, the ruling opens the door to a government whose actions increasingly reflect Trump’s will.
So now Trump can just fire everybody?
Not quite. In a second case, SCOTUS ruled that Trump can’t immediately oust Lisa Cook, a governor for the Federal Reserve. As you may remember, Trump has been feuding with the central bank over its refusal to prematurely lower interest rates. As part of that campaign, Trump tried to fire Cook, a Joe Biden appointee whom the Trump administration accused of mortgage fraud. But by a 5–4 vote, SCOTUS blocked Cook’s dismissal while she fights those accusations. The ruling dodges (at least for now) a kerfuffle that could have rocked markets. (And if you’re curious how the justices justified letting Trump fire independent agency heads while shielding a Fed official from the same fate, MJS is your guide to the hypocrisy.)
So what happened with voting rights?
As you may remember, Trump is obsessed with the idea that late-arriving mail ballots cheated him out of the presidency in 2020 (they didn’t). Accordingly, Republicans had challenged a Mississippi law that let the state count ballots postmarked by Election Day that arrived at election offices later. But in a 5–4 decision, SCOTUS sided with the state. Trump quickly doubled down, renewing his call for Senate Republicans to pass a bill that would restrict mail voting. But for you, nothing has changed—at least not yet. As Richard Hasen explains for Slate, today’s ruling was uncomfortably close. What’s more, the justices’ decision to hear a case next term over an Arizona proof-of-citizenship requirement threatens to deliver a far more damaging verdict on voting rights.
Glad we have that to look forward to. Did Trump suffer any clear defeats today?
His most stinging losses were arguably in cases that the court didn’t hear. The justices declined to take up the president’s challenge to a jury award that ordered him to pay $5 million to E. Jean Carroll, a writer Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming. The court also passed on a chance to overturn New York Times v. Sullivan, a landmark press-freedom ruling. The lawyer Alan Dershowitz had sued CNN in an effort to make it easier for public figures—including the president, who is infamously litigious—to pursue journalists for alleged defamation. But lower courts tossed out the suit, and SCOTUS opted not to revive it today. Sorry, Dersh!
Whew. That’s a lot of Supreme Court news. Please tell me we’re done?
Sorry, friend. SCOTUS has four opinions left this term, and they’re all expected to drop tomorrow. One is a case over Trump’s brazen effort to end birthright citizenship, the Constitution’s long-standing guarantee that children born in the U.S. are automatically citizens. As Slate’s jurisprudence team has explained, Trump’s effort is likely to fail. During arguments this year, his legal team’s unprecedented claims tanked even with some conservative justices (and did so in front of the boss; as you may remember, Trump is the first sitting president to attend a SCOTUS argument). We’ll be back tomorrow with an update.
Well that was a busy day. Now, what to do with the rest of it? Might we recommend a few fun reads, a good podcast, and a bit more on that soccer tournament you keep hearing about?
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For every cloud, there’s a silver (or green) lining. Plenty of people are mad about Trump’s botched renovation of the Reflecting Pool. But as Cara Giaimo writes for Slate, algae enthusiasts are finding tremendous joy in all the muck.
It’s a strange musical club. We’re all familiar with the concept of a one-hit wonder, but what about artists who hit it big a second time—and never again? “Two-hit wonders” are the subject of Slate’s latest Hit Parade podcast, where host Chris Molanphy counts down his favorite fluky examples.
Dave & Buster’s likes to party. The beloved family-hangout chain is in trouble, Paula Mejía writes. To survive, it’s trying a rowdy, adults-only solution.
One weird trick to make your summer gala better. Slate’s Nadira Goffe has a controversial pitch: Every party, even ones for adults, should feature name tags. Hear her out!
The World Cup is getting serious. After a terrific group stage, we’ve entered the knockout round. By way of review, that means if a game is tied at the end of regulation, it goes to a 30-minute overtime (no sudden-death) followed by the dreaded penalty kicks. No spoilers, but Brazil and Japan played a screamer of a game this afternoon. Germany and Paraguay kicked off at 4:30 Eastern. And a pair of heavy hitters face off at 9 when Morocco takes on the Netherlands. This is one to stay up for.
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Read more The Supreme Court Just Handed Trump the Keys to the Entire Kingdom