Supreme Court

Sonia Sotomayor hits Elon Musk with 'quid pro quo' accusation

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested that billionaire Elon Musk had a "quid pro quo" relationship with President Donald Trump after donating millions to get him re-elected.

During a Tuesday hearing on campaign finance laws, Sotomayor made the suggestion to an attorney for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who was arguing to further cut back campaign finance limitations.

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Sonia Sotomayor thumps Trump DOJ for 'asking us to destroy the structure of government'

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor accused President Donald Trump's Department of Justice of asking the high court to "destroy the structure of government" by overturning 90 years of legal theory on who the president could fire.

During a hearing on Monday, Solicitor General John Sauer argued that a 90-year precedent on who the president can remove "must be overruled." The hearing comes after Trump tried to fire Rebecca Slaughter, a Federal Trade Commissioner appointed by Democrats.

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Supreme Court on verge of using flawed theory to grant Trump unprecedented power: expert

The Supreme Court is poised to hear Trump v. Slaughter, a case that could fundamentally reshape the balance of power between the presidency and Congress.

At issue is whether President Donald Trump can fire the heads of independent federal agencies at will — a power the Constitution does not explicitly grant and which the Supreme Court unanimously rejected nearly a century ago, wrote New York Times columnist Kate Shaw, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

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New Supreme Court case could bring 'dramatic change' in how the government works: analysis

During Donald Trump's second presidency, many of his critics, both left and right, are warning that he is failing to respect Congress as a "coequal branch of government." But New York Times columnist David French, a Never Trump conservative and scathing Trump critic on the right, dislikes that phrase — arguing that the U.S. Constitution gives Congress even more power than it gives presidents in the United States' system of checks and balances.

Quite a few MAGA Republicans, in contrast to French, are pushing the Unitary Executive Theory — a far-right legal theory claiming that the Constitution gives presidents sole authority over the federal government's executive branch and that Congress has no business limiting presidential authority.

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Supreme Court poised to either make Trump 'king' or 'lame-duck' in 'coming weeks': report

With the Supreme Court poised to make rulings in several major cases testing the president’s authority, the nation’s highest court will ultimately decide “in the coming weeks and months” whether President Donald Trump ends his second term as a “king,” or as a “lame-duck president facing obstacles to his reign,” the Intelligencer reported Sunday.

“In a very real sense, the Supreme Court will determine in the coming weeks and months whether a president determined to act outside traditional executive boundaries can or cannot be meaningfully restrained by Congress or the judiciary,” writes Intelligencer columnist Ed Kilgore. “As Christian Farias put it in New York, if the Court acts quickly and decisively in Trump’s favor, it could in just three months effectively make him king.”

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Supreme Court hits Trump with delay as president attempts to fire legislative officer

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to immediately permit President Donald Trump to fire Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter from her post inside the Library of Congress.

Earlier this year, Trump removed Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress appointed by President Joe Biden, and replaced her with his former personal attorney, Todd Blanche. Blanche then tried to remove Perlmutter, who reports to the Librarian of Congress.

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'Whoa': MSNBC host reacts to Neil Gorsuch's 'stunning' comments against Trump's power grab

"Whoa," a MSNBC host said on Sunday as a public defender described Supreme Court Justice Judge Neil Gorsuch apparently criticizing a power grab by Donald Trump.

Liz Oyer, a former pardon attorney, appeared on MSNBC over the weekend, and was asked about the issue of tariffs. She noted that there was "a really interesting argument at the Supreme Court this week that suggested that a couple of conservative justices may join the liberals in striking down Donald Trump's tariffs."

She continued, specifically noting comments made by Gorsuch.

"I mean, we won't know until we actually see the ruling, but the arguments certainly suggested that a couple of judges are very interested in potentially striking this down," she said. "And the most stunning comments came from Neil Gorsuch, who is a strong conservative member of the court, who made a comment indicating that he believes that the Trump presidency has been gradually but steadily taking too much power away from the legislature. Congress."

That led host Jonathan Capehart to blurt out, "Whoa."

Oyer further added, "So the Supreme Court is sort of telegraphing that congress has the responsibility for taxation. Tariffs are a tax. And if we need to tariff other countries, it should be congress doing it, not the president."

'Strap in': Economist predicts mass 'mayhem' over Supreme Court's next Trump order

Australian economist and professor Justin Wolfers issued a dire warning this weekend that however the Supreme Court ends up ruling on the White House’s tariff policy, mass “mayhem” was likely to follow.

“If – as I expect – the Trump tariffs are ruled illegal, we're going to move from eight months of unconstitutional illegal tariff turmoil to a whole new set of tariff turmoil,” Wolfers said, appearing on journalist Molly Jong-Fast’s show “Fast Politics” on Saturday.

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'Trump is panican': Critics ridicule president over new 'flailing' attack on Supreme Court

President Donald Trump was dragged through the mud Sunday for his panicked attack on the Supreme Court as his authority to impose sweeping tariffs may be on the verge of being struck down.

In an online post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump erupted at the Supreme Court over its growing skepticism of his authority to impose tariffs, implying that the court was uneducated on the intent of the Founding Fathers as it relates to his authority to impose tariffs.

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'Mic drop': Right-wing justice's statement might have killed Trump's Supreme Court hopes

In a "mic drop" moment this week, a right-wing justice's comment might have killed President Donald Trump's Supreme Court hopes.

Justice Neil Gorsuch’s closing remarks and questioning Wednesday in the case challenging Trump's tariffs "was damaging for the administration's case," according to a New York Times opinion conversation published Thursday between writer Emily Bazelon and columnist David French.

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Expert predicts 'easy way' Supreme Court will shut down Trump's main priority

The Supreme Court appeared very hostile to President Donald Trump's emergency tariff system during oral argument this week, but it's unlikely they'll delve that deeply into the issue of what constitutes an emergency, legal expert Lisa Rubin told MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on Thursday.

That's because, she argued, there's a much easier and less politically fraught way they can strike down the tariffs.

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'Major questions': Conservative Supreme Court justice warns of Trump's unchecked power

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch Wednesday warned of President Donald Trump's unchecked power, saying there are "major questions."

The conservative justice and Trump appointee pressed lawyers to define the limits of executive power and expressed concern over giving the president unlimited authority as the Supreme Court started hearing arguments on Trump's tariffs, according to Newsweek.

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'That's exactly what they are': Sotomayor schools lawyer claiming tariffs aren't taxes

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor clashed with Solicitor General John Sauer, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, after he claimed that tariffs were not a tax burden on the American people.

During oral arguments about Trump's global tariff agenda, Sotomayor said she didn't buy the government's argument that the president had the power to enact tariffs.

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