The Supreme Court closed the books on opinions for the term by handing conservatives three major wins in two days, expanding the scope of President Donald Trump’s executive power and scrapping limits on campaign spending while contracting the rights of transgender Americans. But in the case that mattered most to Trump — his bid to fundamentally reshape the country’s foundation for who gets to be a citizen — the justices cast down a stinging rebuke, upholding the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship and invalidating a Day One executive order Trump signed in a brazen attempt to rewrite more than a century of precedent, POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein reports. It’s the second time this year that the conservative high court has reined in some of Trump’s most controversial — and consequential — moves. In February, the justices struck down the tariff authority the president had cited in his attempts to upend the contours of global trade, catalyzing an explosive response from the president who nominated three of them to the bench. Today’s ruling may hurt Trump more. Although few legal scholars, chroniclers of the court, and even perhaps Trump himself had come to believe that his bid to revoke birthright citizenship would survive the court, Trump made history when he appeared in the courtroom for oral arguments — underscoring his intense interest in the case. “If Congress intended to limit American citizenship to the children of those domiciled in the United States, nothing in the succinct language of the Citizenship Clause conveyed that design,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the decision, in which he was joined by Justices Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, alongside the liberal Justices Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, another Trump appointee, disagreed with the majority's reliance on a constitutional argument, but said Trump’s EO is invalid because it violates a federal statute. Trump said the decision was “too bad for our Country” — then thrust the onus onto Congress, calling on congressional Republicans to “start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship.” He was quick to celebrate his wins today. On the transgender athletes ruling, Trump proclaimed on Truth Social that the court had “RULED AGAINST MEN PLAYING IN WOMEN’S SPORTS,” using his often-deployed transphobic rhetoric to applaud the justices for taking “that ridiculous situation off the table!!!” That 6-3 ruling, which upholds bans on trans athletes in Idaho and West Virginia, “will likely bolster the Trump administration’s long-running threats to yank federal funding from schools and states over transgender-inclusive policies,” POLITICO’s Bianca Quilantan and Josh write. Conservatives are hopeful the decision, the latest in a series of anti-transgender rulings from the court, could also lead to more state-level bans. On the loosening of campaign finance laws, Trump praised the justices for handing Republicans “A BIG WIN.” The 6-3 decision will have the most immediate impact on the midterms — essentially allowing candidates direct control over far more money being spent on their races, a blow to Democrats that places even more influence in the hands of large donors, who tend to cut checks for the GOP. More from POLITICO’s Jessica Piper and Josh POLITICO’s Andrew Howard has a breakdown of the cash hole Democrats find themselves in: The RNC has $125 million in the bank, while the DNC has $3.5 million in debt. The NRCC has $82 million to the DCCC’s $73 million. And the NRSC holds $49 million, while the DSCC has $39 million. Dems fear the biggest impact will be to prop up Republicans who’ve lagged in individual fundraising but could now get a gusher of national cash. “The RNC has been stockpiling their money because they knew their former chairman Michael Whatley would need to get bailed out,” warned Roy Cooper campaign manager Jeff Allen in a statement. Good Tuesday afternoon. This is Irie Sentner. Get in touch.
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