The Supreme Court began a new term on Monday (October 6), with presidential powers looming large on the docket. One of its first decisions? Declining to hear the appeal of Ghislaine Maxwell.

Washington

The US Supreme Court has commenced its latest term, with its first notable action being the refusal to hear Ghislaine Maxwell's appeal, thereby upholding her 20-year sentence for sex trafficking. The court's docket for the term is set to address a range of high-profile cases, including those related to former President Trump's policies, transgender rights, gun rights, the death penalty, campaign finance, and challenges to the Voting Rights Act.

Additionally, the justices will consider cases involving presidential powers, such as the authority to impose tariffs and the ability to dismiss officials from independent federal agencies. Observers note that the court is likely to support robust presidential powers within the executive branch, but may set limits when actions encroach on congressional authority. Other significant issues, such as birthright citizenship, are also expected to be addressed in the near future.

Previewing the major cases of the new Supreme Court term

The Supreme Court began a new term today, one of its first decisions declining to hear the appeal of Ghislaine Maxwell. She was the partner of Jeffrey Epstein and was convicted on several sex trafficking charges. Some of the victims, you might remember, were as young as 14 years old. Today's decision means that Maxwell's 20-year federal criminal sentence remains in place. I want to bring in Jan Crawford for more on this first Monday of October, which means the court is in session. Jan, you are among the most able and keen observers of the Supreme Court. Thank you, Major. What are you watching for this term? Everything. OK. I mean, the easier answer is, what are they not going to do this term? Normally, when the court comes on the first Monday of October, you know, we'll have a couple big cases, but we may struggle to kind of say it's going to be a huge term. They've already set the parameters of what this term's going to be, and they're going to continue adding cases throughout the rest of this year. You've got major cases involving President Trump and some of his policies. In addition to that, you have a range of some of the most hot-button social issue cases that the court now is going to confront—trans rights, gun rights, a death penalty case, a campaign finance reform case, and a challenge to a key part of the Voting Rights Act. Those are just kind of the social issue constitutional law cases. But then you've got these Trump cases that have really divided the justices, and we saw this summer, they didn't really get much of a break. You know, usually they'll go off for the summer. The feelings and tensions will subside, and they can kind of come back in October and get along. It wasn't like that this summer. So, it seems to me, from a generalist perspective, which is what I am now, Jan— I think you're an expert at everything by now. Presidential power, two buckets. One, tariffs. The other, on executive power to fire those within the executive branch, and kind of a possible dividing line the court may draw between those directly related to the executive branch and those that have a quasi-relationship to the federal branch. So those are the two cases so far that the court has taken up this term. I think there will be more. And, of course, the tariffs case will be one of the biggest ones of the term, no matter what, and whether or not those sweeping tariffs that President Trump has imposed are lawful. Now, these guys who are in the solicitor general's office and are filing these cases in the Supreme Court are very strategic. And so, they're only bringing cases to the court that they think they—you know, on an emergency basis, that they think they may be able to win. And I think we can see in this tariffs case, they're already laying the legal groundwork for other ways Trump can levy tariffs. If they're nullified by the court. Correct. Like, the court may look a little skeptically at that. So already you see behind the scenes they're looking for other legal justifications for Trump when he's imposing these tariffs. Couple of names to name-check. Lisa Cook on the Federal Reserve, and Rebecca Slaughter, who was an FTC commissioner. To your point, whether or not President Trump can fire members of independent federal agencies that were appointed by Democratic presidents, like Joe Biden, he's arguing that he has the authority to do that, that these agencies act like, you know, executive branch agencies. And I think he's probably going to win those cases. Maybe not the one with the Fed, though. The court is going to see the Federal Reserve as different than some of these other federal agencies. This is a pattern, though. We've seen this from the court, going back to the Biden administration, when they let President Biden fire someone that President Trump had put on, the Social Security Administration. So this is a court that believes that presidents have pretty robust power within that sphere of the executive branch. But if they start encroaching into Congress's power, like with tariffs potentially, then I think you're going to see some limits. Or something as historical. Oh, and we haven't even talked about birthright citizenship. No, we haven't. That's on the horizon. We'll get to that the next time you come back, Jan, which I hope will be very, very soon. Jan Crawford, as always, thank you so much.

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