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Using truncated procedures, the six-justice conservative majority gave a green light to many of the president’s most assertive initiatives.
June 28, 2025, 5:01 a.m. ET
The Supreme Court term that ended on Friday included an extraordinary run of victories for President Trump, culminating in a 6-to-3 ruling largely eliminating the main tool that his opponents have used to thwart his aggressive agenda.
In that case and others, the justices used truncated procedures on their emergency docket to issue decisions that gave Mr. Trump some or all of what he had asked for in cases dealing with immigration, transgender troops and the independence of government agencies.
The emergency rulings in Mr. Trump’s favor were theoretically temporary and provisional. In practice, they allowed the president to pursue his policies indefinitely and sometimes irreversibly.
In the first 20 weeks of Mr. Trump’s second term, his administration filed 19 emergency applications asking the justices to pause lower court losses while lawsuits continued. That is the total number of such applications the Biden administration filed over four years, and far more than the eight applications filed over the 16 years of the George W. Bush and Barack Obama presidencies.
The spike was a result of challenges to the blitz of executive orders issued by the administration since Mr. Trump took office. The upshot was a winning streak delivered by a court he remade in his first term, appointing three of the six conservative justices.
Many of the emergency decisions were based on rushed and cursory briefs, and came after the court did without oral arguments. They were usually delivered in orders containing scant or no reasoning.
The Trump Administration Was Favored in Nearly All of its Emergency Cases
Trump-related emergency docket cases since January, with those granted in favor of the administration highlighted.
Source: SCOTUSblog
Note: In Mr. Abrego Garcia’s, the court largely left in place the lower court’s order, directing the Trump administration to “facilitate” his release.
The New York Times
How the Court Voted in the Last Two Terms
In the term that ended Friday, the court produced half the number of decisions with a 6-3 split than it did last term.
Nonunanimous nine-person decisions that were orally argued and signed
Source: Calculated by Lee Epstein and Andrew D. Martin, Washington University in St. Louis; and Michael J. Nelson, Penn State from the Supreme Court Database
The New York Times
Number of Orally Argued Signed Decisions Each Term
Source: Calculated by Lee Epstein and Andrew D. Martin, Washington University in St. Louis; and Michael J. Nelson, Penn State from the Supreme Court Database
The New York Times
How Often Each Justice Voted With the Majority
Nonunanimous decisions that were orally argued and signed
Source: Calculated by Lee Epstein and Andrew D. Martin, Washington University in St. Louis; and Michael J. Nelson, Penn State from the Supreme Court Database
The New York Times
