Supreme Court shifts slowly to the right in first term with expanded conservative majority
CBSN
Washington — All eyes were on the Supreme Court this term as it ushered in a new era with an expanded conservative majority and a full third of its membership having been appointed by former President Donald Trump.
While the high court's term concluded with two high-profile decisions that split along ideological lines — the first upholding a pair of Arizona election rules, which sparked a fiery dissent from Justice Elena Kagan, and the second striking down a California donor disclosure rule — it also produced a number of rulings that cut across those divisions, bringing a slower start to its conservative transformation than many observers had anticipated. "This has been a less ideologically riven court than many expected," said Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University. "There were five different 5-4 lineups and six different 6-3 lineups, though there were also more 6-3 decisions than 5-4 decisions, driven in part by the ideological balance of the court."
When President Trump issued sweeping pardons to some 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants on his first day in office, his action did not distinguish between those who peacefully wandered the Capitol grounds four years earlier and those who engaged in violence against police.
Washington — President Trump said Tuesday that he could impose hefty tariffs on automobile imports, but said he would have more to say in early April.
The National Science Foundation — an independent federal agency that funds scientific research around the globe — has fired 168 probationary employees in adherence to orders from the White House, according to an agency spokesperson.
Billionaire Elon Musk's role in the Trump administration is to find ways to cut costs through the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. But a new court filing from the White House states that the Tesla CEO isn't an employee of DOGE, adding that Musk "has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself."
Washington — Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced Tuesday that the Senate will move forward with a vote on a budget proposal to begin enacting President Trump's agenda this week, moving ahead of Republicans in the House who are pursuing a competing plan.
Elon Musk has debuted a new version of his artificial intelligence chatbot, called Grok 3, days after rival OpenAI rejected the billionaire's bid for the company, which he cofounded with Sam Altman and others in 2015.
Passengers are starting to share their stories of surviving a chilling crash-landing Monday at Toronto Pearson International Airport, where a Delta plane on a flight from Minneapolis caught fire and flipped upside down on the runway.
Washington — The head of the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C, has resigned her post, the latest in a string of Justice Department officials to leave under the Trump administration.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has notified the U.S. Postal Service's board that it's time to begin the process of identifying his successor to lead the 250-year-old postal network, USPS announced on Tuesday.
When Brian Gibbs woke up on Valentine's Day on Friday, it was just another morning of getting to do what he loved at his "dream job" as an education park ranger at Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa. By that afternoon, the father and husband said he was "absolutely heartbroken and completely devastated" to have been one of hundreds of National Park Service employees suddenly fired from their jobs.
In Fresno, California, social media rumors about impending immigration raids at the city's schools left some parents panicking - even though the raids were all hoaxes. In Denver, a real immigration raid at an apartment complex led to scores of students staying home from school, according to a lawsuit. And in Alice, Texas, a school official incorrectly told parents Border Patrol agents might board school buses to check immigration papers.
Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier was released from a Florida prison Tuesday morning after former President Joe Biden commuted his life sentence for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents, a decision that elated Peltier's supporters while angering law enforcement officials who believe in his guilt.
Mexico announced Monday the seizure of 440 pounds of methamphetamine in a cartel heartland, as it comes under mounting pressure from President Donald Trump to tackle drug trafficking.