The Supreme Court will issue more than a dozen major decisions before the close of its 2025-2026 term, with rulings expected on birthright citizenship, Trump’s power to fire federal officials, election integrity, campaign finance limits, and transgender rights.
Justices are expected to release decisions through the end of June.
The court’s biggest pending case involves whether President Trump can end birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants and temporary migrants. Trump has said he expects to lose. “It will be a disgrace,” he told reporters last week.
At issue is whether the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship to children born under U.S. “jurisdiction” was intended to apply to children of people who entered the country illegally or on temporary visas. An 1898 Supreme Court ruling, a 1940 law, and more than a century of legal interpretation have supported automatic citizenship. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pushed back on the government’s position during oral arguments. “I think you have a number of hurdles,” she told the government’s lawyer.
Closely tied to the birthright citizenship question is a ruling on Temporary Protected Status. Biden administration expansions to the program added roughly one million people, effectively shielding them from deportation indefinitely. Trump has sought to reverse those additions.
The court will also rule on Trump’s authority to dismiss officials at so-called independent federal agencies. The justices appeared likely to overrule a 1935 precedent that limited a president’s firing power at agencies like the Federal Trade Commission. Trump ousted FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter over policy disagreements and separately fired Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook by social media post, without first providing cause or giving her a chance to contest the removal. Justices appeared less receptive to the Lisa Cook firing, signaling concerns about the procedural manner of her dismissal.
A consequential election integrity case tests Mississippi’s law allowing mail-in ballots to be counted up to five days after Election Day, provided they were postmarked by Election Day. The Republican National Committee challenged the law. Should the court side with the RNC, similar laws in roughly 30 states could be affected.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee and Vice President J.D. Vance have also asked the court to lift Federal Election Commission limits on coordination spending between party committees and their preferred candidates. They argue the restrictions violate the First Amendment.
The court is additionally expected to rule on the implications of Callais v. Louisiana, a redistricting decision issued earlier in the term that rewrote how states may draw legislative maps, mandating a more colorblind approach under the Voting Rights Act. The ruling has already triggered new redistricting proceedings in several Southern states.
Ilya Shapiro, director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, called Callais the biggest election-related ruling the court has handed down in years. “I don’t think there is going to be a bigger case when we look back at this term in the election area than Callais,” Shapiro said.
Transgender rights cases are also pending, though the court has not yet specified which matters it will take up in the final weeks of the term.
The court began its 2025-2026 term with an earlier ruling limiting Trump’s tariff powers, a decision the administration has contested. Justices’ final decisions of the term will come before the end of June.
