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It was a mixed bag for President Trump at the Supreme Court on Monday.
The justices tightened the president’s grip on executive power in ruling independent agency leaders may be fired, while rejecting a key pillar of Trump’s political agenda aimed at restricting mail-in voting. They ruled he must give a Federal Reserve governor due process before she may be fired, and they rebuffed the president’s appeal in a civil lawsuit.
Here are five takeaways from the court’s penultimate opinion day:
Major expansion of presidential power
The 6-3 decision allowing Trump to fire Federal Trade Commission (FTC) member Rebecca Slaughter marks a major expansion of the president’s firing power.
It accomplishes legal conservatives’ long-sought goal by casting aside 91 years of precedent that has provided certain agencies with a degree of independence from the White House.
Trump himself called it the “greatest increase” in presidential power in a century.
The conservative majority cast the decision as returning the presidency to its proper form. Chief Justice John Roberts said Trump’s expansive firing power is by design.
“When power is exercised well, the people know whom to thank; when power is exercised poorly, they know whom to blame—and whom to fire,” Roberts wrote. “That is the very premise of our system of government.”
The decision allows the president to fire officials at a broad swath of agencies beyond the FTC. More than a dozen others across the executive branch have enjoyed similar protections. They regulate nuclear energy, plane accidents, product recalls, credit unions and more.
The liberal justices insisted it gives Trump a power “unknown even to the English Crown.”
“Today, the Court discards that democratic regime in favor of one that distorts the structure of Government to fit the majority’s theory of unitary, total executive control. The result is a President who emerges with far greater power than ever before,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote.
To hear Justice Neil Gorsuch tell it, Congress can fix that.
“The power to write new regulatory crimes still exists, but now the pen ultimately rests in the President’s hand. The ability to judge disputes in-house remains, but now the house is white,” Gorsuch wrote in a solo opinion.
Acknowledging it concentrates presidential power, Gorsuch said the solution is for lawmakers to make agencies less powerful by removing their extensive abilities to regulate American life.
Roberts rules for and against Trump in 1 day
Roberts handed Trump both a major victory and a defeat.
As he led his fellow conservative justices to greenlight the president’s ability to fire certain independent agency heads without cause, the court did not yet extend that same authority to the president regarding the Federal Reserve.
In a narrow 5-4 ruling also authored by the chief justice, the majority found that Trump failed to provide Federal Reserve board of governors member Lisa Cook with sufficient due process before he tried to fire her over mortgage fraud allegations. Cook has denied any wrongdoing.
Ignoring that step would allow the president to remove a Federal Reserve governor “at any time, for any reason, without any notice before, and without any judicial check after,” Roberts contended.
It made for a split day on Trump’s power, with Roberts at the center.
He has gained a reputation for trying to keep the court above the political fray. But as public approval in the court has fallen to near record lows, Trump’s agenda has continued to inundate the justices.
As Roberts ruled against Trump at the Fed, the chief justice took care to note the decision’s narrow nature. He stressed that it doesn’t resolve the ultimate question of whether Cook can be fired.
It left Trump still sounding confident. He pushed for Cook’s removal shortly after the decision came down, specifically noting in a Truth Social post that the ruling was on a “strictly procedural basis” only.
Trump loses big on mail-in ballots
Another major loss dealt to Trump was the high court’s 5-4 ruling that upheld a Mississippi law allowing mail-in ballots to be counted if they were received within five days after Election Day.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority that Mississippi’s law does not conflict with federal election law, defeating the Republican National Committee’s attempt to cease the post-Election Day practice of counting ballots.
“The Framers recognized the difficulty of crafting election laws ‘applicable to every probable change in the situation of the country,’” Barrett wrote, citing the Federalist Papers. “So instead of constitutionalizing election law, they decided that a ‘discretionary power over elections’ needed to be lodged ‘somewhere.’ Suffice it to say, that power was not lodged in this court.”
Justice Samuel Alito led the dissent with the court’s three other conservative jurists.
“Today, not all voting occurs in person on Election Day,” Alito wrote. “Both voting by mail and early voting have become popular, and respondents do not dispute the lawfulness of these modern practices. Nor do I. But acceptance of these practices cannot change the fact that under federal law, the electorate’s collective choice must still be authoritatively expressed on Election Day.”
Trump reacted to the loss by making another push for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act to pass through Congress. Hours later, he conceded the bill was unlikely to pass “because we have four Republican senators, maybe five, that just won’t vote for it. It’s crazy.”
Trump justices emerge as deciding votes
Two of the conservative justices appointed by Trump cast determining votes against him in separate cases, decisions that could leave Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Barrett vulnerable to Trump’s criticism.
Trump has not hesitated in his second term to express his dissatisfaction with Supreme Court rulings he dislikes, especially when justices he elevated to the bench are part of them.
Barrett, the most junior conservative justice, authored the mail ballot opinion. She and Roberts joined the three liberal justices to form the majority, while the court’s four other conservative justices dissented.
The ruling is a blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on the voting practice, which the president has repeatedly claimed contributes to widespread fraud despite a lack of supporting evidence.
Kavanaugh, meanwhile, joined the 5-4 majority to side against Trump at the Fed. Kavanaugh voted alongside Roberts and the three liberal justices.
In a brief concurring opinion, he specifically noted the central bank’s unique standing and urged the court to formally preserve its independence.
“Even temporary uncertainty about the status of the Federal Reserve could spark political upheaval, including confusion about whether the President could immediately remove multiple Governors at will, as well as turmoil in the U.S. and world economies,” Kavanaugh wrote. “I would not go down that road.”
Court lets Carroll verdict stand in shock to Trump
Before the court handed down opinions, it handed Trump a loss by declining to take up a case.
The justices turned away the president’s bid to overturn a jury’s $5 million verdict finding him liable of sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of assaulting her in the mid-1990s. Trump denies her story.
The Supreme Court declines the vast majority of requests to hear cases, but the president said he was surprised by the development.
“Surprisingly, the Supreme Court declined to ‘review’ a Fake Case brought against me by a woman I never met (Decades old celebrity photo line, standing with her husband, does not count!),” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“I will continue the fight against this Weaponization and Lawfare Case against me, including the ridiculous claim of Defamation, with all of my power and strength,” he continued.
Add as preferred source on Google Tags Amy Coney Barrett Donald Trump John Roberts Lisa Cook Neil Gorsuch Samuel Alito Sonia SotomayorCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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