SCOTUS rules on Trump’s birthright citizenship order, testing lower court powers

The Supreme Court on Friday delivered a major victory in President Donald Trump‘s quest to block lower courts from issuing universal injunctions that had upended many of his administration’s executive orders and actions.

Justices ruled 6-3 to allow the lower courts to issue injunctions only in limited instances, though the ruling leaves open the question of how the ruling will apply to the birthright citizenship order at the heart of the case.

The Supreme Court agreed this year to take up a trio of consolidated cases involving so-called universal injunctions handed down by federal district judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington state. Judges in those districts had blocked Trump’s ban on birthright citizenship from taking force nationwide – which the Trump administration argued in their appeal to the Supreme Court was overly broad.

The Supreme Court’s arguments in May focused little on the merits of those universal injunctions – and on Friday, the court made clear that it is not ruling on whether the birthright citizenship orders are constitutional.

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Instead, it instructed the lower courts to “move expeditiously to ensure that, with respect to each plaintiff, the injunctions comport with this rule and otherwise comply with principles of equity.” 

They also stayed any enforcement of the orders from taking effect for 30 days. 

“The applications do not raise – and thus we do not address – the question whether the Executive Order violates the Citizenship Clause or Nationality Act,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, writing for the majority. “The issue before us is one of remedy: whether, under the Judiciary Act of 1789, federal courts have equitable authority to issue universal injunctions.”

“A universal injunction can be justified only as an exercise of equitable authority, yet Congress has granted federal courts no such power,” she added.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elana Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented in the case.

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Sotomayor, in a scathing dissent, characterized the decision as “nothing less than an open invitation for the Government to bypass the Constitution.”

“The Executive Branch can now enforce policies that flout settled law and violate countless individuals’ constitutional rights, and the federal courts will be hamstrung to stop its actions fully. Until the day that every affected person manages to become party to a lawsuit and secures for himself injunctive relief, the Government may act lawlessly indefinitely. Not even a decision from this Court would necessarily,” she said.

In a separate dissent, Jackson wrote that the decision from the majority “will disproportionately impact the poor, the uneducated, and the unpopular – i.e., those who may not have the wherewithal to lawyer up, and will all too often find themselves beholden to the Executive’s whims.”

The Supreme Court agreed in April to hear the consolidated cases, which focused on three lower court judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington state who issued “universal” injunctions against Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order. 

But that wasn’t the main focus of the appeal, or the May 15 oral arguments before the high court. 

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Rather, the justices weighed whether lower courts should have the authority to issue nationwide injunctions at all, or whether doing so exceeds their authority, as argued by Trump officials.

The ruling is expected to have sweeping implications for U.S. district courts, and comes at a time when presidents, including both Democrat and Republican administrations, have sought to use executive orders as a means of sidestepping a clunky, slow-moving Congress.

Trump praised the statement on social media Friday, which he described as a “GIANT WIN” in the Supreme Court. He also said he plans to hold a press conference on the decision at 11:30 a.m.  

“Even the Birthright Citizenship Hoax has been, indirectly, hit hard. It had to do with the babies of slaves (same year!), not the SCAMMING of our Immigration process,” he said on Truth Social. “Congratulations to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Solicitor General John Sauer, and the entire DOJ.” 

Federal judges across the country have blocked Trump’s ban on transgender persons serving in the U.S. military, ordered the reinstatement of core functions of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and halted Elon Musk’s government efficiency organization, DOGE, from oversight and access to government agencies, among other things. 

Justices across the ideological spectrum appeared to agree during oral arguments this month that the use of universal injunctions has surged in recent years – but after more than two hours, remained split on how to proceed. 

No easy solution emerged to the thorny legal problem, as the justices wrestled with a tangle of procedural questions over whether to scale back the use of universal injunctions and what legal standard should govern them.

Sauer argued that lower court judges have used universal injunctions to act beyond their authority and block the lawful powers of a sitting president.

But Sotomayor noted that blocking or limiting lower court injunctions could invite hundreds or thousands of new individual lawsuits. 

“Your theory here is arguing that Article III and principles of equity [clause] both prohibit federal courts from issuing universal injunctions to have your argument,” she said later, adding: “If that’s true, that means even the Supreme Court doesn’t have that power.”

Kagan, meanwhile, pointed out the practical challenge of expecting the Supreme Court to weigh in on every issue now handled by lower courts, which have already faced hundreds of federal lawsuits during Trump’s second term. 

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She also noted to Sauer that the Trump administration has lost every federal lawsuit challenging the birthright citizenship executive order, including under judges Trump appointed during his first term. 

As expected, several conservative justices on the court, including Justice Clarence Thomas, expressed criticism of universal injunctions.

New Jersey Solicitor General Jeremy Feigenbaum, representing the states, acknowledged that there could be alternative remedies for federal courts other than nationwide injunctions – though he suggested that in certain cases, the class action alternative presented by the Trump administration may not move fast enough to grant relief in certain cases.

“We are sympathetic to some of the concerns the United States has about percolation, about running the table in particular cases,” he said. “We just don’t think that that supports a bright line rule that says they’re never available.”

Roberts and Sotomayor questioned Feigenbaum more in depth on how to determine in what cases universal injunctions should not be the preferred remedy and how to ensure district courts are following that.

Lawyers for the Trump administration asked the high court to review the case earlier this year, arguing that the three lower courts, each of which blocked Trump’s birthright citizenship order from taking force nationwide, acted beyond the scope of their authority. 

Solicitor General Sauer stressed this point during oral arguments earlier this month, telling justices that universal injunctions “require judges to make rushed, high-stakes, low-information decisions.” 

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“They operate asymmetrically, forcing the government to win everywhere,” he said, and “invert,” in the Trump administration’s view, the ordinary hierarchy of appellate review. 

The Supreme Court decision will have sweeping implications, both in the near and longer term, with knock-down effects on the more than 300 federal lawsuits that have challenged White House actions since Trump’s second presidency began on Jan. 20, 2025.

Bondi praised the high court’s ruling on social media Friday. 

“Today, the Supreme Court instructed district courts to STOP the endless barrage of nationwide injunctions against President Trump,” she said, adding that the ruling “would not have been possible without tireless work from our excellent lawyers” at the Justice Department and Sauer.

“This Department of Justice will continue to zealously defend @POTUS’s policies and his authority to implement them,” she added.

Supreme Court decides whether to allow parents to shield children from LGBTQ books in school

The Supreme Court held Friday that a group of Maryland parents are entitled to opt their children out of school lessons that could violate their beliefs in a case centered on religious freedom. 

The justices decided 6-3 along ideological lines in Mahmoud v. Taylor that parents can exclude their children from a Maryland public school system’s lessons that contain themes about homosexuality and transgenderism if they feel it conflicts with their religious faith.

“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,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority. “And a government cannot condition the benefit of free public education on parents’ acceptance of such instruction.”

Montgomery County Public Schools began incorporating books into their preschool through 12th grade language arts curriculums a few years ago that featured “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer characters,” the school district’s attorneys told the Supreme Court. The attorneys said the school district did this as part of an effort to be “culturally responsive” and teach lessons that encourage “equity, respect, and civility.” 

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The Maryland parents who sued said in their petition to the high court that the school board introduced books to their elementary school students that promoted “gender transitions, Pride parades, and same-sex playground romance.” 

The parents said the school board initially allowed parents to opt their children out of lessons involving those books but then ceased doing that.

They also said the presence of the books created “indirect pressure to forgo a religious practice,” which created enough of a burden to violate their religious freedom rights.

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The parents who brought the suit span a range of religious backgrounds. Tamer Mahmoud and Enas Barakat are Muslim, while others fall under different denominations of Christianity.

During oral arguments, Justice Clarence Thomas questioned an attorney representing Montgomery County schools about whether the books simply existed in the classroom or were actively introduced to the students.

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The attorney indicated that teachers gave lessons to the students involving the books in question five times during the school year.

Rosalind Hanson, a member of the conservative group Moms for Liberty, told Fox News Digital during a recent interview in front of the Supreme Court that she and other parents who helped bring the case were “not trying to change the curriculum” for parents who did support their children being exposed to the books.

“The majority of states across the country have said you can have an opt-out for these very sensitive issues and topics, especially because of the religious component, but also because of the age appropriateness,” Hanson said.

Iran’s top diplomat contradicts supreme leader on ‘serious’ nuclear site damage

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi admitted in an interview on state TV that the U.S.’s strikes caused serious damage to Tehran’s nuclear facilities, despite Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s insistence that there was minimal impact.

Araghchi said in the interview that “the level of damage is high, and it’s serious damage,” according to the Associated Press.

Post-strike assessments have shown that Iran’s nuclear sites suffered damage in both U.S. and Israeli attacks. All three countries — Iran, Israel and the U.S. — have reached similar conclusions about the extent of the damage, despite what a leaked intel report indicated.

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The only leader who seemingly does not agree with the assessments is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said that “the Americans failed to achieve anything significant in their attack on nuclear facilities,” according to reports. 

Khamenei appears to be more focused on projecting strength than reflecting reality. He described Iran’s attack on Al-Udeid, the American airbase in Qatar, as a “heavy slap to the U.S.’s face.” While President Donald Trump dismissed it as a “very weak response” and thanked Iran for giving the U.S. “early notice.”

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement on Tuesday that the agency had “seen extensive damage at several nuclear sites in Iran, including its uranium conversion and enrichment facilities.”

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In addition to discussing the damage done to Iran’s nuclear sites, Araghchi also addressed the possibility of resuming talks with the U.S. He said that the American strikes “made it more complicated and more difficult” for Iran to come to the table, but did not rule out the possibility that negotiations could resume.

Nuclear talks with the U.S. might not be entirely off the table for Iran after last week’s strikes—even if Tehran is not interested in reentering negotiations right away.

The possibility of negotiations was already in question prior to Operation Midnight Hammer, as Tehran viewed the U.S. as being “complicit” in Israel’s Operation Rising Lion, according to Reuters, citing Iranian U.N. Ambassador Ali Bahreini.

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Trump on Wednesday expressed optimism in the U.S.’s ability to resume nuclear talks with Iran.

“We’re going to talk to them next week, with Iran. We may sign an agreement, I don’t know. To me, I don’t think it’s that necessary. I mean, they had a war. They fought. Now they’re going back to their world. I don’t care if I have an agreement or not. The only thing we would be asking for is what we’re asking for before about, we want no nuclear [program]. But we destroyed the nuclear,” Trump said. 

Despite Trump’s statement, there is still no clear indication that the countries have plans to meet in the near future.

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Lifelong Democrat switches to Trump after seeing ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ tax benefits

President Donald Trump recognized a third-generation autoworker from Michigan Thursday while speaking at the “big, beautiful event,” noting he was a lifelong Democrat who now supports the president because of vehicle loan interest tax benefits.

The president spoke about the “big, beautiful bill” from the East Room of the White House with a group of people standing behind him who represented various trades, including food delivery, farmers and automotive workers.

One of the workers standing behind Trump was James Benson, a third-generation autoworker from Belleville, Michigan, who has been with Ford Motor Company for 26 years.

Trump introduced Benson, noting that Ford has “a lot of plants” in the U.S.

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“If you have plants in this country, you’re going to make a lot of money,” the president said, adding that he loves autoworkers.

Trump also said Benson was a lifelong Democrat until 2017, when he saw the benefits of the tax laws.

Trump then spoke about his latest plan to benefit car owners by making interest on car payments fully tax-deductible.

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But the deduction would only be for cars made in the U.S., Trump said, adding if it was made someplace else, “we don’t care.”

Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” would create a new deduction of up to $10,000 for qualified passenger vehicle loan interest in a given taxable year. The deduction would phase out when a taxpayer’s modified adjusted gross income exceeds $100,000.

Applicable passenger vehicles include cars, trucks, vans, SUVs and motorcycles that have been manufactured for use on public streets, roads and freeways and for which the final assembly occurs in the U.S.

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The bill defines the final assembly as the process by which the manufacturer produces a vehicle and delivers it to a dealer with all the parts necessary for operation.

As is the case with the overtime and tips deductions, the auto loan provision would be in effect for tax years 2025 through 2028.

Trump reiterated to those in attendance that the tax benefit is only for vehicles made in the U.S.

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“Remember that, James. We’re going to keep those Michigan auto factories roaring,” the president said.

Armed woman causes hours-long traffic stoppage as she sits in chair on busy highway

An armed woman sat in a lawn chair in the middle of a busy Texas highway on Thursday, sparking an hours-long standoff with law enforcement that caused traffic to stand still before she eventually surrendered.

Harris County Constable Precinct 4 deputies responded Thursday afternoon to a report of an armed woman who was involved in a crash involving an 18-wheeler on I-45 South in Spring, Texas. The woman and the driver of the truck were unharmed in the incident.

After the collision, the woman exited her vehicle with a chair and sat down in the middle of the highway. The constable’s office said the woman, who was armed with a handgun, was refusing to drop the weapon.

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“She persistently kept it to her face, her throat, her head, therefore making it very difficult for us to approach her and take the gun away,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a press conference, according to Fox 26.

The sheriff said she was expressing suicidal thoughts.

“It was a very delicate situation throughout the whole ordeal,” he said. “She has some mental illnesses that she’s dealing with so there’s no rationality as far as what’s taken place. There is some history of psychosis, so that’s to be determined.”

Traffic was shut down in both directions during the five-hour standoff, backing up traffic as law enforcement attempted to negotiate with the woman.

Crisis Intervention Response Team members responded to the scene, and her daughter arrived as well.

“We allowed her to speak to her daughter to let her know her daughter was safe,” Gonzalez said, adding that the woman was “in-and-out” of sorts during the mental health crisis.

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“That was something that kept her here with us from doing something foolish. Once she realized her daughter was here, she was safe, she was going to be allowed to see her again, it got better at that point,” the sheriff said.

The woman eventually surrendered and was taken into custody before being transported to a hospital for evaluation.

Trump admin acts after massive fraud uncovered at agency Dems tried to shield

Following the uncovering of a massive bribery scandal at USAID, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is ordering a full audit of all government contracting officers who have exercised grant-awarding authority under the agency’s business development program over the last 15 years.

In a letter obtained by Fox News Digital, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said the scale of the USAID fraud is a “damning reflection of systemic failures in oversight and accountability.” She further said that the fraud “was not an isolated incident.”

In response, Loeffler instructed Associate Administrator Tre Pennie, who oversees government contracts awarded by SBA, to “act decisively” to crack down on any potential similar abuses in the agency.

Loeffler instructed Pennie to immediately initiate a full-scale audit of the agency’s awarding officers back to 2010.

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“The role of federal government contracting officers is not ceremonial or self-dealing; rather, it is a position of immense authority and fiduciary responsibility,” said Loeffler. “The contracting process must be transparent and built on merit, not personal gain.”

This comes after USAID, an agency tasked with administering civilian foreign aid, was essentially dismantled by the DOGE waste, fraud and abuse cuts made under Elon Musk and President Donald Trump. The move was met with massive protests from Democrats who claimed that cutting USAID would impoverish and harm recipients across the globe.

Despite claims of how much good the agency was doing, it was recently discovered that an influential contracting officer at USAID named Roderick Watson was able to carry out a massive, long-term bribery scheme dating all the way back to 2013.

Watson, 57, pleaded guilty to “bribery of a public official,” according to a DOJ press release.

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According to the DOJ, Watson sold his influence starting in 2013, with contractors Walter Barnes, owner of Vistant, and Darryl Britt, owner of Apprio, funneling payoffs through subcontractor Paul Young to hide their tracks. 

A DOJ press release said that Britt and Barnes “regularly funneled bribes to Watson, including cash, laptops, thousands of dollars in tickets to a suite at an NBA game, a country club wedding, downpayments on two residential mortgages, cellular phones, and jobs for relatives. The bribes were also often concealed through electronic bank transfers falsely listing Watson on payroll, incorporated shell companies, and false invoices.”

The statement said that Watson is alleged to have received bribes “valued at more than approximately $1 million as part of the scheme.”

Vistant was awarded in November 2023, as part of a joint venture, a contract worth up to $800 million with one of the focuses of that contract being to address “a variety of issues affecting the root causes of irregular migration from Central America to the United States,” an issue that President Joe Biden tasked then-Vice President Kamala Harris with during his presidency.

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Several days later, that contract was canceled after USAID published a notice that said Vistant was excluded from government contracting due to “evidence of conduct of a lack of business honesty or integrity.”

The joint venture then successfully sued the government over being put on that exclusion list and was re-awarded the contract and given a $10,000 payment in August 2024. 

In her letter, Loeffler said the USAID scandal “represents a collapse in the very safeguards that are supposed to protect American taxpayer dollars and ensure fair access for legitimate small businesses.”

She slammed the Biden administration for awarding the $800 million contract to Vistant despite the business being labeled by USAID as lacking “honesty and integrity.”

“The fact that a federal official was able to act as the linchpin of a persistent, large-scale fraud operation speaks to a failure in internal controls and a breakdown in the contracting environment that demands immediate correction,” said Loeffler.

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She said that SBA plays a “critical role” in federal contracting and “will no longer stand by while abuses are perpetrated at the expense of taxpayers and deserving small businesses.”

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Loeffler said the agency’s audit will begin with high-dollar and limited competition contracts within SBA’s 8(a) business development program. The findings will be referred to the U.S. Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the DOJ.

Any officials or businesses found in violation of the SBA’s ethical standards or who have committed criminal misconduct will be referred to the appropriate authorities and SBA will assist the DOJ in recovering misappropriated funds, Loeffler said.

“We will not allow public trust to be quietly eroded by backdoor deals and unchecked discretion,” said Loeffler.

“We owe it to America’s small businesses to get this right,” she went on. “Your office has the authority, and now the mandate, to act decisively.” 

Montana congressman stands firm against Senate measure as Trump presses for passage

Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., said in a Thursday post on X that he remains opposed to the Senate reconciliation measure.

“I agree with my colleagues that the federal government has mismanaged federal lands for decades. But I don’t agree with their solution. The solution is not to sell public lands. The solution is better management. Let’s send legislation to POTUS desk to improve management and access. I remain a no on the senate reconciliation bill,” the lawmaker noted.

The president has been urging lawmakers to pass the measure.

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GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah has been pushing for the measure to include the sale of some federal land, while Zinke has been opposing the prospect.

A Monday press release from the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee indicated that the public land sales provision of the measure had been flagged by the Senate parliamentarian.

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“Housing prices are crushing families and keeping young Americans from living where they grew up. We need to change that,” Lee noted in a Monday night post on X. 

“Yes, the Byrd Rule limits what can go in the reconciliation bill, but I’m doing everything I can to support President Trump and move this forward,” he noted.

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Zinke served as Interior secretary during a portion of President Donald Trump’s first term in office. 

Mayoral candidate’s $100B NYC housing plan has developers seeing red

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is rattling real estate developers and landlords over his sweeping proposal to tackle the city’s housing crisis. The Queens assemblyman wants to build 200,000 new publicly-subsidized affordable homes and immediately freeze rents for the city’s 2.4 million stabilized tenants. 

“You don’t build housing by attacking the people who build it,” Jared Epstein, president of Aurora Capital Associates, told FOX Business. “I’m a developer. And by attacking me, my company, our peers, it’s not effective.”

Mamdani ran a campaign focused on making one of the country’s most expensive places to live more attainable for average residents. His proposals call for multi-year rent freezes and massive investment in public housing. Critics argue his proposals could worsen existing problems in the rental market, including Epstein.

“A rent freeze is a housing freeze, plain and simple,” he argued.

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Many landlords say thousands of rent-stabilized units are already sitting vacant due to costly repairs they can’t afford without being able to raise the rent. A rent freeze would only make that situation worse. 

Mamdani’s campaign website acknowledges the steep $100 billion price tag his plans would cost the city over 10 years. To pay for the projects, he’s proposed steeper taxes on wealthy New Yorkers making over a million dollars, and a higher corporate tax rate. 

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Despite the backlash from the real estate industry, Mamdani is finding strong support among progressive and younger voters frustrated by rising costs. According to Realtor.com, the median rent in New York City has reached $3,397, a nearly $200 increase since 2024.

Tenant advocates say landlords can absorb the tax hikes and rent controls.

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“Landlord’s profits are up 12% in just the last year alone, while one in four New Yorkers are struggling to afford the basics,” said Cea Weaver, director of the New York State Tenant Bloc. 

“A modest increase in taxes is not going to drive New Yorker’s corporations out of the city.”

Sydney Sweeney, Khloe Kardashian step out ahead of Bezos-Sánchez wedding

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s wedding celebrations are in full swing as the streets of Venice have been buzzing with star power and A-list arrivals. 

Khloé Kardashian and Kris Jenner stepped out in head-turning fashion on Friday, with Kardashian in a black dress and flip-flops while Jenner wore a bold leopard-print gown.

Actress Sydney Sweeney was also photographed walking the streets of Venice in a short black dress with a plunging neckline.

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Sánchez herself was seen leaving her hotel in a white short-sleeved jacket and matching skirt. She also wore a headscarf and sunglasses, and was photographed blowing a kiss to the camera.

Model Vittoria Ceretti – Leonardo DiCaprio’s current girlfriend – was spotted in a floral dress, talking on the phone as she carried what appeared to be a shopping bag, and Orlando Bloom stepped outside the Gritti Palace Hotel, where he was photographed.

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Singer Usher and wife Jennifer Goicoechea were seen taking photos of their own while on a water taxi Friday.

A-listers have been flooding the Italian streets for the luxurious wedding of Bezos and Sánchez, one of the year’s most talked-about celebrations. 

On Thursday, celebrities such as Orlando Bloom, Tom Brady, Kim Kardashian, DiCaprio, Kylie Jenner and more were seen boarding water taxis at various luxurious hotels in Venice, Italy, ahead of the couple’s extravagant wedding celebrations.

Sánchez gave onlookers a wave as she boarded a boat with her soon-to-be husband by her side outside the Aman Hotel. The couple shared a sweet kiss while aboard the boat. 

According to People, the couple hosted a welcome party for their guests in a closed cloister adjacent to the Madonna dell’Orto church on Thursday night. 

Sánchez wore a golden, satin dress – a look from Schiaparelli’s Spring-Summer 2025 Haute Couture collection – according to the outlet. 

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She later posted a photo of herself in the gown on her Instagram story, referring to it as her “pre-wedding dress.”

Guests reportedly arrived in a convoy of about 30 boats. According to the outlet, guests were served pizza cooked onsite by a famous Neapolitan chef. 

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Throughout the day, baskets of white and purple-colored flowers were brought in to decorate the venue, along with a piano, People reported.