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The US Supreme Court in Washington.
(Bloomberg) -- The US Supreme Court so far has largely accommodated Donald Trump’s assertions of sweeping presidential power. The term that starts Monday will determine just how far the court is willing to go.
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For eight months, the conservative supermajority has helped Trump amass power, temporarily lifting about 20 rulings that were thwarting his initiatives. The court now is positioned to consider the underlying legal questions behind his imposition of global tariffs, bid to control independent regulatory agencies — including the Federal Reserve — and effort to restrict automatic birthright citizenship.
The stakes are high. Chief Justice John Roberts and his court must decide what lines to draw with a president who has repeatedly said his election means he can do whatever he wants. With the Republican-controlled Congress showing little interest in resisting Trump, any constitutional guardrails will have to come from a court that under Roberts’ leadership for the past 20 years has expanded White House power.
“We’re going to learn about the extent to which this court is willing to stand up to the president,” said Gillian Metzger, an administrative and constitutional law professor at Columbia Law School.
The presidential-powers showdowns will occur alongside a series of cases that could transform federal voting law — and potentially bolster Republican prospects in the coming elections – as well as what are sure to be polarizing clashes over transgender athletes and counseling aimed at changing a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
The start of the nine-month term follows a flood of litigation during the opening months of Trump’s term, most of it stemming from the torrent of far-reaching executive actions he issued since his Jan. 20 inauguration.
The Supreme Court has already acted on 23 emergency requests from Trump, with the conservative majority giving him at least a significant part of what he sought in 20 of those cases, often over dissents from the three liberal justices. Those include fights over mass firings, federal grant funding, alleged racial profiling by immigration agents and access to sensitive Social Security information by the Department of Government Efficiency.