Despite Being Subverted By Lower Courts, Trump Scored Big In Latest SCOTUS Term

After facing repeated defeats in the lower courts, the Trump administration scored big in the Supreme Court’s 2024-2025 term.

While the administration’s most significant victory was a decision in Trump v. CASA to rein in district court judges’ use of nationwide injunctions, it also secured favorable rulings on emergency docket applications and positions it staked out in amicus briefs supporting other parties.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that lower courts exceeded their authority by blocking President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship restrictions nationwide, which Trump said was “a monumental victory for the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the RULE OF LAW.”

“I was elected on a historic mandate, but in recent months, we’ve seen a handful of radical left judges effectively try to overrule the rightful powers of the president to stop the American people from getting the policies that they voted for in record numbers,” he said in a statement. “It was a grave threat to democracy.”

Emergency Docket Wins

While the Biden administration filed 19 emergency appeals at the Supreme Court in four years, Trump filed 19 applications in the first 20 weeks of his second term alone, Georgetown University law professor Steve Vladeck noted in June.

Emergency docket rulings, often issued through unsigned orders without details on the justices’ reasoning, are not final decisions on the merits. However, they proved important in enabling Trump to continue executing policies as district court judges blocked many of his efforts.