Mark Sherman.

FILE - The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Supreme Court clears the way for Trump’s plans to downsize the federal workforce

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s plans to downsize the federal workforce. The order comes despite warnings that critical government services will be lost and hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be out of their jobs. The justices on Tuesday overrode lower court orders that temporarily froze the cuts. The court said in an unsigned order that no specific cuts were in front of the justices, only an executive order issued by Trump and an administration directive for agencies to undertake job reductions. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only dissenting vote, accusing her colleagues of a “demonstrated enthusiasm for greenlighting this President’s legally dubious actions in an emergency posture.”

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FILE - A prisoner is moved as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tours of the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Migrants deported from US to Salvadoran prison remain under US control, Salvadoran officials tell UN

The government of El Salvador has acknowledged to United Nations investigators that the Trump administration maintains control of the Venezuelan men who were deported from the U.S. to a notorious Salvadoran prison, contradicting public statements by officials in both countries. The revelation was contained in court filings Monday by lawyers for more than 100 migrants who are seeking to challenge their deportations to El Salvador’s mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. The case is among several challenging President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

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President Donald Trump speaks to the media before walking across the South Lawn of the White House to board Marine One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Md., and on to Florida, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Trump asks Supreme Court to remove 3 Democrats on the Consumer Product Safety Commission

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to remove three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, who were fired by President Donald Trump and then reinstated by a federal judge. Trump has the power to fire independent agency board members, the Justice Department argued in its filing to the high court Wednesday, pointing to a May ruling by the Supreme Court that endorsed a robust view of presidential power. The five-member commission helps protect consumers from dangerous products by issuing recalls, suing errant companies and more. They were serving seven-year terms after being nominated by President Joe Biden.

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FILE - Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court John Roberts speaks during a lecture to the Georgetown Law School graduating class of 2025, in Washington, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Chief Justice Roberts warns against heated political words about judges

Chief Justice John Roberts is warning that elected officials’ heated words about judges can lead to threats or acts of violence by others. Roberts’ comments Saturday at a judicial conference come at a time when threats against judges are on the rise. Roberts didn’t identify anyone by name. But he was clearly referring to Republican President Donald Trump and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer when he said he’s felt compelled to issue public rebukes of figures in both parties in recent years. Roberts said the danger is that people might pick up on such criticism. He cited “serious threats of violence and murder of judges just simply for doing their work.”

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FILE - The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill, Feb. 27, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Justices side with Texas death row inmate seeking DNA testing to show he shouldn’t be executed

The Supreme Court has ruled for a Texas death row inmate who’s seeking DNA testing to show he should be ineligible for execution. The 6-3 decision Thursday came in the case of Ruben Gutierrez. It gives him a potential path to have evidence tested that his lawyers say would help prove he wasn’t responsible for the fatal stabbing of an 85-year-old woman during a home robbery decades ago. Two others also were charged in the case. Last year, the high court granted Gutierrez a reprieve 20 minutes before he was to receive a lethal injection.

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FILE - The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Supreme Court will hear case of Rastafarian whose dreadlocks were shaved by Louisiana prison guards

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of a former Louisiana prison inmate whose dreadlocks were shaved by guards in violation of his religious beliefs. The justices said Monday they’ll review an appellate ruling that held former inmate Damon Landor could not sue prison officials for money damages under a federal law aimed at protecting prisoners’ religious rights. Landor is an adherent of the Rastafari religion. Landor carried a copy of a ruling by the appeals court in another inmate’s case holding that cutting religious prisoners’ dreadlocks violates the law. Louisiana acknowledges Landor’s mistreatment but asks the justices to reject the appeal. The justices will hear arguments in the fall.

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FILE - Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Supreme Court revives lawsuits against Palestinian authorities from US victims of terrorism attacks

The Supreme Court has revived long-running lawsuits against Palestinian authorities from Americans killed or wounded in terrorism attacks in the Middle East. The justices Friday upheld a 2019 law enacted by Congress to allow the victims’ lawsuits to go forward against the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. The attacks occurred in the early 2000s and in 2018. The victims and their families say Palestinian agents either were involved in the attacks or incited them. The Palestinians have consistently argued the cases shouldn’t be allowed in American courts. A lower court in New York has repeatedly ruled against the victims.

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FILE - The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Supreme Court clears the way for temporary nuclear waste storage in Texas and New Mexico

The Supreme Court has restarted plans to temporarily store nuclear waste in rural Texas and New Mexico, even as the nation is at an impasse over a permanent solution. The justices Wednesday reversed a federal appeals court ruling that invalidated the license granted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to a private company for the southwest Texas facility. The outcome should reinvigorate plans for a New Mexico facility. The licenses would allow the companies to operate the facilities for 40 years, with the possibility of a 40-year renewal. The court’s decision is not a final ruling in favor of the licenses but removes a major roadblock. Plans for a permanent underground storage facility in Nevada are stalled.

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FILE - The Supreme Court is pictured, Jan. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Supreme Court will hear Alabama appeal in bid to execute man found to be intellectually disabled

The Supreme Court will consider making it harder for convicted murderers to show their lives should be spared because they are intellectually disabled. That’s according to an order released early on Friday after an apparent technological glitch. It’s the second time in about a year that an online error resulted in an early release from the high court. The justices’ action comes in an appeal from Alabama, which is seeking to execute Joseph Clifton Smith. He was sentenced to death for killing a man in 1997. When it’s argued in the fall, the case could be the first in which the Supreme Court cuts back on its 23-year-old landmark ruling that barred the death penalty for people who are intellectually disabled.

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FILE - The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Trump asks the Supreme Court to clear the way for federal downsizing plans

President Donald Trump’s administration has renewed its request for the Supreme Court to clear the way for plans to downsize the federal workforce, while a lawsuit filed by labor unions and cities proceeds. The high court filing Monday came after an appeals court refused to freeze a California-based judge’s order halting the cuts, which have been led by the Department of Government Efficiency. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled last month that Trump’s administration needed congressional approval to make sizable cuts to the federal workforce. The administration initially asked the justices to step in last month, but withdrew its appeal for technical, legal reasons. The latest filing is one in a series emergency appeals arguing federal judges had overstepped their authority.

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FILE - Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Supreme Court will consider reviving Republican challenge to Illinois law on mail ballots

The Supreme Court has agreed to consider reviving a Republican challenge to an Illinois law that allows mail ballots to be counted if they are received up to two weeks after Election Day. The justices said Monday will hear arguments in the fall over whether Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., and two former presidential electors have the legal right, or standing, to sue over the law in federal court. Lower federal courts ruled they lack standing. The case could serve to amplify claims made by President Donald Trump that late-arriving ballots and drawn out electoral counts undermine confidence in elections.

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FILE - Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

What cases are left on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket? Here’s a look

A little less than once a week on average since President Donald Trump began his second term, his administration’s lawyers have filed emergency appeals with the Supreme Court. The sequence of events is familiar: A lower court judge blocks a part of the Republican president’s agenda, an appellate panel refuses to put the order on hold while the case continues and the Justice Department turns to the nation’s highest court. The Supreme Court is not being asked to render a final decision but rather to set the rules while the case makes it way through the courts. The administration’s most recent emergency filing arrived May 27, seeking to halt an order by a judge in Boston.

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FILE - Members of Apache and others who want to halt a massive copper mining project on federal land in Arizona gather outside the U.S. District Court, May 7, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

The Supreme Court rejects a plea to block a copper mine on land in Arizona that’s sacred to Apaches

The group Apache Stronghold is vowing to carry on the fight against a massive copper mining project on land the Apaches hold sacred, after a Supreme Court decision that is expected to let the mine proceed. On Tuesday the court rejected an appeal from Apaches who want to halt the project. The justices left in place lower court decisions allowing the transfer of land in the Tonto National Forest known as Oak Flat to Resolution Copper. The company says the ground there holds the world’s second-largest known copper deposit. Resolution Copper’s general manager says the company has made major changes to its mining plan to reduce the impact on tribes.

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FILE - The Supreme Court is seen in Washington, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Supreme Court declines to reinstate independent agency board members fired by President Donald Trump

The Supreme Court has declined to reinstate independent agency board members fired by President Donald Trump. The court’s action Thursday essentially extended an order Chief Justice John Roberts issued in April that had the effect of removing two board members Trump fired from agencies that deal with labor issues, including one with a key role for federal workers, as Trump aims to drastically downsize the workforce. Neither agency has enough appointed members to take final actions on issues before them, as Trump has not sought to appoint replacements. The decision Thursday keeps on hold an appellate ruling that had temporarily reinstated Gwynne Wilcox to the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris to the Merit Systems Protection Board. The court’s liberal justices dissented.

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