Supreme Court allows Trump to recast America

Donald Trump is on a roll. Last week, he bombed Iran and imposed a ceasefire on Tehran and Jerusalem. Now the Supreme Court, in its final day of session, has handed him another victory by constraining the power of federal judges to constrain the executive branch. The verdict is clear: the Trump administration will have much more latitude to recast America.

In essence, the Supreme Court is consolidating a conservative counter-revolution that began, as Sam Tanenhaus notes in his exemplary new biography of William F. Buckley, Jr., after World War II and is reaching full flower under Trump. Once upon a time, liberals enacted sweeping policies and programs through the courts. Now it is the right’s turn.

Trump didn’t say that the ruling obliterated birthright citizenship, but he did call it a “monumental victory.” His creature at the Justice Department, Attorney General Pam Bondi, was exultant. “No longer,’ she declared at the White House, “will we have rogue judges striking down President Trump’s policies across the entire nation…” Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was withering. In response to her colleague Kentanji Brown Jackson’s complaint that the ruling amounts to a “smoke screen” for imposing extremist policies, Barret wrote, “We observe only this: Justice Jackson decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary.”

Will Trump be able to expunge birthright citizenship? The court remained mum on the topic. Trump himself said today that it was meant “for the babies of slaves. It wasn’t meant for people trying to scam the system and come into the country on a vacation.” Trump has already shut down the southern border. Now, in the 28 states that have not challenged the constitutionality of his executive order ending birthright citizenship, Trump can terminate automatic citizenship to children born to undocumented immigrants and visitors to America. Born in the U.S.A.? “Nowhere to run ain’t go nowhere to go,” may acquire a new resonance should Trump prevail in his quest to abolish birthright citizenship in toto.

For now, Trump looks impregnable. But he does continue to face annoyances and obstacles, both large and small. As Republican legislators stage a rebellion, Politico is referring to his budget proposal as “one big, beautiful mess.” Tump is refusing to weigh in on the specific merits of the bill, which is fueling internecine feuds in the GOP. Then there are Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough’s rulings, which have put paid to a number of ingenious contortions that the GOP has put forward in an effort to disguise the actual cost of the one big beautiful bill, which remains, as Elon Musk memorably put it, an abomination. Since then, Musk, who has been quiescent, appears to have gone into a federal witness protection program.

Perhaps most nettlesome for Trump is the presence of a statue on the National Mall devoted to ridiculing him. A week ago there was a “Dictator Approved” anti-Trump statue. Now, a television spraypainted in gold with a bald eagle perched on top of it is playing a 15-second video loop of Trump dancing next to the sex offender and former financier Jeffrey Epstein, according to the Washington Post. Affixed to the plinth is a plaque reading, “‘In the United States of America you have the freedom to display your so-called ‘art,’ no matter how ugly it is.’ – The Trump White House, June 2025.” It’s followed by quotes from Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un and Viktor Orban lauding Trump. Maybe the Supreme Court will weigh in on the merits of artistic freedom next.