US Supreme Court limits lower courts' power to block Trump

The president of the elite University of Virginia (UVA) stepped down on Friday after being called on to stop measures to make the school more diverse and fair, reportedly at the risk of losing federal funding if he failed to do so.

The resignation of Jim Ryan marks an escalation in the war being waged by the Trump administration against academic institutions it sees as hostile to its agenda, as  the UVA is a public university and not one of the Ivy League private institutions that have previously been attacked.

"I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job," Ryan said in a statement  on Friday.

He wrote that risking federal funding cuts by staying on "would not only be quixotic but appear selfish and self-centered to the hundreds of employees who would lose their jobs, the researchers who would lose their funding, and the hundreds of students who could lose financial aid or have their visas withheld."

Since taking the helm in 2018, Ryan has been a strong advocate of so-called DEI — diversity, equality and inclusion — practices, which aim to redress historic demographic inequities. Among other things, he tried to increase the number of students at the university who were the first in their families to go on to higher education.

US President Donald Trump in Januarysigned a decree ordering DEI programs nationwide to be eliminated, with DEI critics saying that things like university admissions should be purely merit-based.

The Ivy League Harvard University has become a particular target of government hostility, with Trump seeking to ban it from having foreign students, slashing billions in grants and contracts and challenging its tax-free status.
 

The Republican-led US Senate rejected a Democratic-led bid on Friday to block President Donald Trump from using further military force against Iran, hours after the president said he would consider more bombing.

The Senate vote was 53 to 47 against a war powers resolution that would have required Congressional approval for more hostilities against Iran.

The vote came after Trump said he would not rule out further attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. Asked if he would order such strikes again, he said, "Sure, without question, absolutely."

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday filed a $787 million defamation lawsuit against Fox News. The suit was filed in Delaware, where Fox is incorporated. 

Newsom said the right-wing outlet lied about a phone call he had with President Trump regarding his immigration crackdown.

Newsom's lawsuit charges that Fox exhibited a "willingness to protect President Trump from his own false statements by smearing his political opponent Governor Newsom in a dispute over when the two last spoke during a period of national strife."

At issue is a false or erroneous claim by Trump regarding a phone call that took place around the time he deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles against the governor's wishes. Newsom claims Fox intentionally broadcast incorrect information "to provoke outrage and cause Governor Newsom significant [political] harm."

"Enough of their lies," said Newsom in a video posted on X.

Newsom offered to drop the lawsuit if Fox would retract its claim that he lied about the call and if Fox and host Jessie Watters, who made the claim during a broadcast, both apologized on air. 

"Governor Newsom's transparent publicity stunt," retorted Fox in a statement, "is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him. We will defend this case vigorously and look forward to it being dismissed."

The governor, seen by many as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, says Fox acted in malice and he is therefore seeking damages. To win the case, he must prove Fox acted with actual malice, meaning it knew its statements were false, or had reckless disregard for the truth.

Newsom's damages request is almost identical to the $787.5 million Fox was ordered to pay Dominion Voting Systems in 2023, after it lied about alleged vote-rigging in the 2020 US presidential election.

"If Fox News wants to lie to the American people on Donald Trump's behalf, it should face consequences — just like it did in the Dominion case," Newsom said in a statement. 

"I believe the American people should be able to trust the information they receive from a major news outlet."

Stocks on Wall Street closed at record highs on Friday with the Dow Jones Industrial Index, S&P 500 and NASDAQ all buzzing on hopes of pending trade deals — though the run flattened after President Trump angrily announced the cancellation of trade talks with Canada over a 3% digital tech tax. 

Wall Street's recent run has recovered from massive losses suffered when Trump first launched his global trade shake-up — with the S&P, for instance losing 20% of its value. The surge has come as the White House announces progress, albeit partial, on US trade disputes around the globe. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's announcement of a deal with China over rare earths and magnets for chip production helped boost Friday's rally.

Bessent's suggestion that trade deals could be completed with as many as 18 countries by Labor Day (September 1) will no doubt boost morale, too.

US Commerce Department data released Friday showed consumer income and spending contracting slightly in May, though inflation remains steady at around 2%. Financial analysts also feel confident that the US Federal Reserve will implement its first rate cut of the year in September.

US President Donald Trump on Friday angrily announced the end of trade talks with Canada after Ottawa refused to back down on a 3% digital services tax on Canadian and foreign tech firms — like Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb — operating in the country.

The tax, which will take effect on Monday and will be applied retroactively, translates into a roughly $2 billion (€1.71 billion) bill due at the end of the month.

"Based on this egregious Tax," wrote Trump in a social media post, "we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately. We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period." 

That last sentence dovetails with Trump's earlier Friday announcement that he would soon be writing to countries around the world to inform them what their tariff rate in the US will be. 

The US leader called Canada's decision to stick with the tech tax "a direct and blatant attack on our country." 

The US Supreme Court on Friday delivered numerous wins not only for President Trump but also religious groups. One case the court ruled on before heading into summer recess delivered a win to religious parents seeking to protect their elementary school children from exposure to schoolbooks featuring LGBT themes.

The plaintiffs — Muslim, Roman Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox parents — argued the selected storybooks, "promote one-sided transgender ideology, encourage gender transitioning and focus excessively on romantic infatuation — with no parental notification or opportunity to opt out."

The court's justices voted along ideological lines in a decision that saw six conservatives favoring the parents and three progressives supporting Montgomery County public school administrators, who say they were simply trying to expand curriculum in a way that reflects the diversity of families living in the district.

Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was joined in her dissent by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said that public schools educate children of all religions and backgrounds and help them live in a multicultural American society.

"That experience is critical to our Nation's civic vitality. Yet it will become a mere memory if children must be insulated from exposure to ideas and concepts that may conflict with their parents' religious beliefs. Today's ruling ushers in that new reality," Sotomayor wrote.

The ruling overturned a lower court decision that had found the school district had not violated parents' first amendment rights to the free exercise of religion.

"Today," wrote conservative Justice Samuel Alito on Friday, "we hold that the parents have shown that they are entitled to a preliminary injunction. A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses 'a very real threat of undermining' the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill."

President Donald Trump welcomed the US Supreme Court's ruling that curbs the power of federal judges and said his administration can now seek to proceed with numerous policies such as his executive order aiming to restrict birthright citizenship that he said "have been wrongly enjoined on a nationwide basis."

US President Donald Trump said he would "absolutely" order a strike on Iran if intelligence indicated that Tehran was still capable of enriching uranium to nuclear weapons-grade.#

Speaking at a press conference at the White House, Trump also said Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "got beat to hell" in the war involving Israel and the US, and that the timing of ending it was "great." He expressed anger after the Iranian leader claimed his country had scored a victory over the United States.

Regarding future inspections of Iran's nuclear sites, the US president said he supports inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or another respected source being able to inspect nuclear sites in Iran following the bombings by Israel and the US.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Tehran may reject any request by the IAEA, the UN's nuclear watchdog, to visit the country's nuclear sites, calling the insistence by IAEA head Rafael Grossi to visit nuclear sites in Iran "meaningless, even malign in intent."

This comes after the Iranian parliament voted to suspend any cooperation with the IAEA over its failure to condemn the strikes carried out on various nuclear sites in Iran by Israel and the US.

The Supreme Court's decision on injunctions left the status of President Donald Trump's restrictions on birthright citizenship unclear.

On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order instructing federal agencies not to recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States unless at least one parent is an American citizen or a lawful permanent resident, also known as a "green card" holder.

The Supreme Court justices granted a request by the Trump administration to narrow the scope of three nationwide injunctions issued by federal judges in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Washington state that halted enforcement of his directive while litigation challenging the policy proceeds.

It did not let Trump's executive order go into effect immediately and also did not address its legality.

US President Donald Trump labeled the Supreme Court's decision to restrict judges' abilities to grant nationwide injunctions as a "giant win."

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the decision would "stop the endless barrage of nationwide injunctions against President Trump.

At a press conference after the ruling, Trump took aim at judges who had previously blocked his policies through nationwide injunctions.

"It was a grave threat to democracy, frankly, and instead of merely ruling on the immediate cases before them, these judges have attempted to dictate the law for the entire nation," Trump told reporters at the White House, describing these judges as "radical left."

In a separate decision, the US Supreme Court has upheld a Texas law requiring pornographic websites to verify users' ages.

The ruling, handed down Friday, rejects arguments that the law infringes on free speech rights.

The law requires websites whose content is more than a third "sexual material harmful to minors" to have all users submit personally identifying information verifying they are at least age 18 to gain access.

Supporters say the measure is a crucial step in protecting children from harmful online content. Critics, however, warn it could set a troubling precedent for internet regulation.

The US Supreme Court has reined in the power of lower courts to block federal policies.

In a 6-3 ruling stemming from President Donald Trump's bid to end birthright citizenship, the court said nationwide injunctions issued by district court judges "likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has granted to federal courts."

After a number of courts suspended Trump's order, his administration appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that lower judges do not have the right to block presidential actions

The ruling has far-reaching ramifications for the ability of the judiciary to rein in Trump or future US presidents.

Welcome to our coverage of a major US Supreme Court ruling that could have far-reaching consequences for how much power judges have to challenge presidential actions — now and in the future.

In this blog, we will look at the reaction to the ruling of the US Supreme Court that has just made it harder for lower courts to block federal policies, including presidential executive orders.

We will also look at how it will impact Trump's bid to limit birthright citizenship.