The Supreme Court wrapped up a busy Monday by handing down a grab bag of decisions that ensured just about everyone walked away happy about something – and irritated about something else.
President Donald Trump scored one of the day’s biggest wins when the court ruled he can fire leaders of independent federal agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, tossing aside nearly 90 years of precedent and expanding presidential authority over the executive branch.
But that momentum hit a speed bump when the court also ruled Trump cannot fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook without cause, preserving the Fed’s long-standing independence from direct White House control.
Trump also struck out in his effort to overturn the $5 million civil judgment won by E. Jean Carroll after the Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal, leaving the verdict in place.
Election-law advocates also took note as the justices upheld laws allowing properly postmarked mail-in ballots to be counted after Election Day in states that provide a grace period. Ridiculous, I know.
The court also declined to revive Alan Dershowitz’s defamation lawsuit against CNN and sent a major “geofence” cellphone-location privacy case back to a lower court for further review.
The geofence ruling is HUGE as it’s a very much needed crime-solving technique. For years, police have been using what’s known as a geofence warrant – essentially telling Google, “Hand over the location data for every phone that was near this crime scene during this time window, and we’ll sort out who’s suspicious later.” In other words, investigators weren’t starting with a suspect; they were starting with everyone who happened to be nearby and working backward.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court threw a major wrench into that practice, ruling 6-3 that geofence searches [1] trigger Fourth Amendment protections because people have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The justices didn’t ban geofence warrants outright, but they made clear that police can’t treat millions of smartphones like a giant digital lineup every time a crime occurs. The case itself now heads back to a lower court to determine whether the specific warrant used in the Virginia bank robbery investigation passed constitutional muster under the Court’s new guidance.
NBC News explained [2] it by saying, “The majority affirmed that, at a minimum, law enforcement must get a court to sign off on a geofence warrant but did not rule on the underlying warrant in the Virginia case.”
The Supreme Court is expected to wrap up its term today (Tuesday, June 30) by releasing its final batch of opinions [3] before heading off for its summer vacation. And the biggest fireworks may still be ahead. The justices are expected to rule on President Donald Trump’s effort to end automatic birthright citizenship for some children born in the United States; a major campaign finance dispute; and a case over whether states can prohibit transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s school sports. If Monday was the warm-up act, today’s decisions could be the headline event.