Supreme Court term will tackle executive power, executive power and executive power

"The Supreme Court opens a new term Monday, which promises to be hugely consequential and focused in large part on how much power the Constitution gives to the president. Among the issues already on the court's docket: a case that could end what's left of the landmark Voting Rights Act; a case that could do away with one of the few remaining laws that limits campaign fundraising;"

"Since Trump took office for a second term, the conservative court's 6-to-3 majority has been rocking the boat big time. In just eight months, it has broken all records for granting a president's wishes on the "emergency docket." By the end of last week, the court had granted 20 of Trump's requests to block lower court orders opposed by the administration."

""The granting of these emergency applications creates a feedback loop and the more they get granted the more incentive the solicitor general has to seek additional emergency relief in many cases," observes Donald Verrilli, who served as solicitor general for five years in the Obama administration. Technically, these decisions to halt lower court rulings, are temporary, because the court did not hear arguments in the cases, nor was there full briefing."

The Supreme Court's new term will address major questions about presidential authority across a wide range of cases, including potential rollbacks of the Voting Rights Act and campaign finance limits, challenges to tariffs and to firing independent agency commissioners, and a test of an executive order targeting birthright citizenship. The conservative 6–3 majority has rapidly shifted emergency-docket practice, granting many of the president's requests to pause lower-court rulings. The court has granted about 20 emergency applications while denying three, often issuing temporary, unexplained stays without full briefing, a pattern that may incentivize more emergency filings.

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