Supreme Court Rulings: Winners and Losers. Chief Justice Roberts: Well, Yes and No. DSA Eyeing Hakeem Jeffreys’ Head for Trophy Wall. Iran Goes after Christians. French Intellectuals Debate Air Conditioning. More
The Supreme Court rained rulings yesterday. Biggest losers: ghost of Woodrow Wilson and the deep state. Biggest winner: E. Jean Carroll because the Court declined to review the verdict in her favor against President Trump.
The Court’s ruling on executive authority, Trump v. Slaughter, is the most important. Here is how a Wall Street Journal editorial addresses this one:
It took 91 years, but the Supreme Court on Monday abandoned the fiction of independent agencies (Trump v. Slaughter). Yet in a somewhat paradoxical decision (Trump v. Cook), the Court enshrined the Federal Reserve’s independence despite its exercise of vast executive powers.
In the first case the conservative 6-3 majority helped restore the Constitution’s proper separation of powers that have been eroded by Woodrow Wilson’s “rule by experts.” Going forward, the President will have free rein to fire members of agencies that exercise executive power as America’s founders intended….
The Federal Reserve is exempt from this presidential authority. The WSJ editors opine:
Our guess is that the Chief and Justice Kavanaugh made the pragmatic judgment that they simply don’t trust Mr. Trump to run monetary policy. They’re right on the politics, but Justice Thomas makes a powerful case on the law.
“Chief Justice Roberts Tries to Save the Fed from Democracy and the Constitution” is National Review’s take. This deals with President Trump’s unsuccessful (for now) attempt to fire Fed Board Member Lisa Cook. The Federalist headline is similar: “John Roberts: Presidents Have Executive Power. Also John Roberts: No, They Don’t.” “If the Fed Is Not Executive, What Is It?” ask NR Editors. Glenn Reynolds greets the Court’s rulings on executive power with a must-read Substack piece headlined “Bringing Back the ‘Spoils System?’ Yes, Please.” “A better name would be an ‘accountability system.’ And it’s just the beginning,” Reynolds argues. Andrew Jackson, the first populist president, is the chief executive whose name is most associated with the spoils system. It is the antidote to the deep state.
George Washington University law prof and Fox Contributor Jonathan Turley’s headline sums it up this way: “Supreme Court Allows Trump to Say ‘You’re Fired’ to Meddling Bureaucrats.” Turley writes:
On Monday, Donald Trump sealed one of the most lasting parts of his legacy. In Trump v. Slaughter, the Court reaffirmed and reinforced the authority of presidents to determine who will carry out the functions of the Executive Branch.
For Powerline, the ruling was nothing less than the implementation of Article III of the Constitution. Ilya Shapiro argues in City Journal that the Supreme Court has finally brought the administrative state back under elected control.
President Trump had less reason to be pleased by the Court’s rulings on mail-in ballots and “geofencing,” two rulings with the conservatives and Justice Alito in dissent. The Wall Street Journal editorial:
So much for the “MAGA Supreme Court.” That’s the Democratic cliché for attacking the Justices, yet they released four major rulings Monday, and the liberals won in three. That includes a pair of cases, both with Justice Samuel Alito in fierce dissent, upholding late mail ballots and erecting a legal bar for police “geofence” investigations.
Sluggish election results are terrible for public confidence. But purely for voter convenience, many states give residents until Election Day to mail their ballots, and then officials spend a week or more afterward counting tardy arrivals. The question for the Justices: Does this violate federal laws, passed starting in 1845, that set a uniform Election Day?
No, says a 5-4 majority of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Chief Justice John Roberts, and the liberal trio.
The ballots ruling aside, the Left tried to portray the Supreme Court as lackeys of the president. “If the Supreme Court Is in the Tank for Trump, It Sure Has a Weird Way of Showing It,” says Brittany Bernstein.
Today will be another big day for the Supreme Court as the Court issues its final rulings, including on the hot-button matter of birthright citizenship.
What’s going on today in Iran negotiations? Both the U.S. and Tehran are sending delegations to Qatar today, but Iran denies that direct talks are scheduled. A large shipping firm says that chaos in the Strait of Hormuz is the “new normal.” Politico recognizes that gas prices are dropping and that could help the GOP in the midterms. Meanwhile, The Free Press reports that “an emboldened Iran is going after Christians“:
St. Peter Evangelical is the oldest Protestant church in Iran. Now the regime is threatening to seize it, warning its leaders: ‘We are no longer afraid of America.’
Some GOP Senators see the state of the negotiations as a potential pitfall for Vice President Vance. Vance’s chief rival for 2028, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, comes out smelling like roses in a WSJ editorial headlined “Rubio Holds the Line on Hezbollah.”
“Eat the rich” is a lefty political slogan. And, yes, socialists—communists—will eat the rich. But not before an aperitif. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is looking very like an aperitif. Kirsten Fleming writes at the New York Post that Jeffreys is “rolling out the welcome mat for the DSA, which aspires to mount his head on their trophy wall.”
Congrats to Bill Maher, who won the Mark Twain Award, which was presented at the Kennedy Center. Kat Rosenfield of The Free Press said he won because he “isn’t afraid of pissing everyone off.” But Maher is himself—uh—peeved with the hard Left. He recently told VP Vance that his vote for 2028 might be “in play” for both Dems and GOP.
The American Left is well-fed by billionaires such as the Soros family. One of these alleged funders is attracting notice from the U. S. Department of Justice:
A federal grand jury is investigating alleged financial crimes by Neville Roy Singham, the China-based tech tycoon whose fortune has funded a sprawling network of socialist, communist and Marxist organizations across the U.S. over the last decade….
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche authorized the investigation as the Trump administration seeks to crack down on fraud, money laundering and other financial crimes in the multibillion-dollar nonprofit industry.
Can the SAVE America Bill be Saved? Conservative activist Scott Pressler says the GOP had better do this. The House is trying to merge it with the must-pass defense bill.
Can the French be SAVED from heat strokes? “Air Conditioning, Scourge of the French Left” is an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal:
As the latest heat wave discomforts Europe, France is arguing about air conditioning. Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally supports issuing €20 billion (about $23 billion) in interest-free loans to buy 30 million to 40 million units and insulation. The French left argues that air conditioning is a selfish indulgence and an ecological menace. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the country’s most prominent left-wing leader, warned that cooling would mean “increasing the damage,” and says he wouldn’t expose his grandchildren to air conditioning because it “destroys your sinuses.”
To an American, this is disorienting. Nearly 90% of U.S. households have air conditioning. But in much of Europe, cooling is a hot issue on which the populist right has the better side of the argument.
That should unsettle American progressives, who assume the far right is consistently irrational while the left is the party of science.
Moral: The Left will fry you before it eats you.
Even with all the chaos in the Strait of Hormuz, the Nasdaq is “on Track to Wrap Quarter With 20% Gain.” Here are some people who aren’t benefiting as much as they might have from the market: “They’re in Their 60s and Their Student Loans Won’t Let Them Retire.” Ms. Must’s pet peeve is that it was borderline criminal to give hefty loans to young people who had little experience with money and reality. And maybe majored in Women’s Studies or something equally ridiculous.
