Good morning. We finally got a look at the terms of the preliminary peace agreement between the United States and Iran yesterday. We’ll tell you all about it below. But first I’d like to turn to my colleague Ann Marimow, who covers the Supreme Court. The justices could release some important rulings today. Ann’s going to tell you about what’s at stake.
Decisions, decisionsThe final weeks of June are traditionally when the Supreme Court issues the biggest decisions of its term. This year is no exception. My colleague Abbie VanSickle and I, along with our editor Roz Helderman, have been prepping for a pile of consequential rulings that the justices will announce before their summer break. By our count, there are still 19 cases to be decided. At least a few are slated to come out at 10 a.m. today. Abbie and I take turns fielding opinions from the press room on the bottom floor of the Supreme Court. Near the end of the term, reporters cram into that small room and await the day’s decisions. We don’t know ahead of time which cases will be decided, and the room buzzes with anxious speculation. We do, however, get some indication of how many opinions are coming. Five minutes before the justices take the bench, members of the public information office staff lug in gray boxes holding stacks of paper booklets — the day’s opinions. This time of year, there are multiple boxes. Since each box holds about two opinions, we can use the number of boxes to guess how many decisions we’ll be flipping through that morning. At the sound of a buzzer, the room goes quiet. Chief Justice John Roberts announces which of his colleagues has authored each majority decision, and press officers quickly hand out the booklets to reporters, who race back to their desks to write. Unlike the court’s oral arguments, the justices’ opinion announcements are not livestreamed. But audio from the courtroom is pumped into the press room, allowing reporters to take notes — but not record — as the author of the majority opinion reads a summary. Occasionally, justices who disagree with a decision will read a summary of their dissent. Such a move indicates strong disapproval of the majority’s view, and the dissenting justice’s voice and mannerisms can sometimes give us a sense of the emotion of the moment. The big cases to come
A major question of this term is how much the court’s six-member conservative majority is willing to push back on President Trump’s agenda to expand presidential power. Back in February, three Republican-nominated justices joined the court’s three Democratic nominees to invalidate the president’s sweeping tariffs. Trump has been railing against the court ever since. But will the justices let Trump oust Lisa Cook, a member of the influential and independent Federal Reserve Board? And what will they say about the president’s attempt to eliminate birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants? The justices’ questions during oral arguments gave us some insight into the likely outcomes in those cases. In both, a majority seemed skeptical of the government’s claims, which suggests they are likely to rule against the administration. Less clear from oral arguments is whether the court will sign off on the administration’s decision to end humanitarian protections for Haitian and Syrian migrants that have allowed hundreds of thousands of people to live and work legally in the United States. And there’s one major executive power case that Trump seems poised to win, involving the Federal Trade Commission. A ruling in his favor would give the president more power to fire independent government regulators throughout the federal bureaucracy despite laws passed by Congress intended to insulate them from political pressure. Apart from Trump’s agenda, other high-profile cases remain undecided. There are two Second Amendment cases — one involving a Hawaii gun control measure, and another about whether the government can prohibit people who use illegal drugs from possessing guns. There is also a dispute over whether Mississippi can accept mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day but received up to five days later. And there is a challenge to laws in West Virginia and Idaho that bar transgender women from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams. Based on the oral arguments, the court seems likely to uphold those laws — which could establish ground rules for the 25 other states with similar restrictions. For more: We are keeping track of every case, both those already decided and those still to come. See the cases. (As we did yesterday, we’re making some stories in the newsletter free to read. This tracker is one of them.)
Days after Trump announced an agreement to end the war in Iran, we finally have some of the details. A U.S. official yesterday released what was described as the preliminary deal. (You can read the full text here.) Here’s what you need to know:
Trump said the U.S. would sign the agreement in the coming days. But he also asserted the right to attack Iran again: “We’re going to bomb the hell out of them if they violate the agreement.” Some officials are skeptical that the two sides can reach a permanent deal in the allotted 60-day period, given that they have already spent months negotiating over the nuclear program. More on the warThese top stories are free to read.
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Ross Douthat and Vice President JD Vance discuss the Iran deal, Christianity and Vance’s new book. The Knicks taught us about resilience, dedication and self-mastery, James Traub writes. It’s on: The Wordle challenge. Celebrate 5 years of the game. Solve each day’s puzzle through Friday and earn a special badge. Play now
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