People gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court.
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The Supreme Court term has given the Trump administration a series of major wins in the final blockbuster week of its term.
We rounded up the final decisions in one place, with more information and links to read the full decisions and our full coverage. Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast or get our weekly Politics newsletter for continued coverage.
The Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines on Friday sided with the Trump administration’s request to limit universal injunctions issued by federal courts. The opinion in the birthright citizenship case was highly anticipated.
“Universal injunctions likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has given to federal courts,” the conservative majority said, sending the case back to lower courts to reconsider their broad orders. However, the opinion also blocked President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship from taking effect for 30 days, while litigation continues.
Read the full decision, and read our full story.
NPR analyzes the Supreme Court decision on birthright citizenship
Wading into another culture clash, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that school systems, for now, are required to provide parents with an “opt-out” provision that excuses their children from class when course material conflicts with their religious beliefs.
The vote was 6-3, along ideological lines.
The court’s decision has, for months, had public school boards, administrators, and teachers worried about how to navigate opt-out demands of all kinds—from courses that include LGBTQ characters in books to science classes that teach Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Read the full decision, and read our full story.
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a key provision of the Affordable Care Act, ensuring, at least for now, that some 150 million people will continue getting many free, preventive services under the act.
The vote was 6-3, with Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh joining the court’s three liberal justices in the majority.
Siding with the government on Friday, the court upheld the Affordable Care Act, allowing the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to continue determining which services will be available free of cost to Americans covered by the Affordable Care Act.
Read the full decision, and read our full story.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a Texas law requiring consumers to provide age verification in order to gain access to commercial websites that provide sexually explicit material. It was the first time that the court has imposed requirements on adult consumers in order to protect minors from having such access.
Free-speech advocates argued that while the law’s goal is to limit minors’ access to online sexually explicit content, it is overly vague and imposes significant burdens on adults’ access to constitutionally protected expression. Lawyers for Texas said in their filing, and during arguments, that the law’s opponents had failed to show a single person whose rights have been “chilled” by it.
By a vote of 6-3 along ideological lines, the court agreed with Texas, saying the law “only incidentally burdens the protected speech of adults.”
Read the full decision, and read our full story.
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a program providing subsidized internet and phone service to underserved communities across the United States. The vote was 6-3.
Conservative groups challenged the program, contending that Congress exceeded its powers in enacting legislation that delegated to the Federal Communications Commission the task of operating the Universal Service Fund, a program that provides subsidized telephone and internet services to rural healthcare providers, schools and libraries, and low income Americans.
But the Supreme Court rejected that argument. Writing for the six-member court majority, Justice Elena Kagan said Congress’s delegation to the FCC didn’t violate the Constitution.
Read the full decision, and read our full story.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday said it would reargue Louisiana’s congressional redistricting plan in its next term, after this summer.
At issue is the Louisiana legislature’s creation of a Black-majority congressional district. A group of “non-African American” voters sued, claiming the district was an illegal racial gerrymander.
Opponents of the redistricting had argued that the state legislature had unconstitutionally relied on race in drawing new congressional district lines.
Read our full story.
The Supreme Court allowed South Carolina to bar Planned Parenthood’s access to federal Medicaid funding for non-abortion services. The decision allows states to ban the organization from getting Medicaid reimbursements for cancer screenings and other care not related to abortion.
At issue was a provision of the federal Medicaid law that guarantees Medicaid patients the ability to choose their doctors, or in the words of the statute, they are entitled to “any qualified and willing provider.” South Carolina, however, maintained that it could disqualify Medicaid providers for “any reason that state law allows.” Or as Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, put it, “Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize abortion providers who are in direct opposition to their beliefs.”
Read the full decision, and read our full story.
