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Supreme Court delivers triple blow to Donald Trump in landmark rulings

The justices block the former president’s appeal in the E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit, preserve the independence of the Federal Reserve, and uphold a mail-in voting law

WASHINGTON — In a series of sweeping decisions, the nation’s highest judicial body has significantly dismantled a trio of legal and political challenges brought forth by the current administration. The Supreme Court delivers triple blow to Donald Trump, dealing sharp rebuffs to his efforts to overturn a multimillion-dollar defamation judgment, terminate a Federal Reserve governor, and invalidate post-Election Day mail-in ballots.

The first setback concerns a five-million-dollar damages award won by journalist and author E. Jean Carroll. The justices rejected an appeal by the American president seeking to wipe out the civil judgment. Carroll sued under a specific New York state statute enacted to allow victims of past sexual abuses to file civil claims. In her 2022 lawsuit, she asserted that Trump sexually assaulted her at a New York department store in the mid-1990s and subsequently defamed her by claiming she fabricated the incident to boost book sales.

Trump, who has consistently denied the allegations, criticized the ruling on his Truth Social platform, calling the case a “bogus lawsuit brought against me by a woman I have never met” and describing the judicial outcome as an intolerable injustice. He maintained that the state legislation was tailored specifically to trap him and argued that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan erred by permitting the jury to hear testimonies from two other women alleging past sexual assaults.

Conversely, Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, stated that the decision confirms the unanimous jury verdict once and for all, effectively ending the president’s attempts to evade accountability. A spokesperson for the president’s legal team countered by calling the litigation a Democrat-funded hoax and demanding an immediate end to the ongoing legal actions.

In a parallel ruling, the high court rebuffed the administration’s attempt to immediately remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from her post. Decided by a 5-to-4 majority, the opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts reaffirms the institutional independence of the American central bank. Trump had sought Cook’s removal over allegations of mortgage fraud—claims she has completely rejected.

While the court did not deliberate on the substance of the fraud allegations, it ruled that Cook maintains the right to be informed of the charges and to respond before any executive action can be taken against her tenure. Cook welcomed the ruling, noting that it upholds a generational principle requiring the Federal Reserve to make policy decisions based on solid data and independent judgment, entirely insulated from political interference. Trump responded by declaring that the case was deferred on purely procedural grounds and pledged immediate, appropriate actions to prevent individuals accused of irregularities from making vital economic decisions.

The final defeat for the administration materialized as the justices upheld a Mississippi voting law by another 5-to-4 vote. The statute permits mail-in ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive within five business days after the polls close. The administration had backed the legal challenge against the law, arguing that counting ballots received after Election Day compromised the integrity of federal elections.

The dissenting votes came from Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh. Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett established that a voter’s choice is completed when the ballot is cast, not when it is physically received. The ruling aligns with the position of Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson, who defended the measure by stating that the essential requirement is for voters to cast their ballots by Election Day, irrespective of subsequent delivery timelines.

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