SCOTUS Hands Trump a Massive Win | Paris Blames America for Its Own Deaths | 6/30/26

Trump v. Slaughter, the ballot-counting ruling, Chatrie v. United States, and Paris's heat wave blame game headline today's A.M. Update. The Supreme Court rules 5-4 that Trump can fire FTC commissioners at will, overturning 90 years of precedent protecting independent agencies, and Aaron says law professor Barb McQuade's outraged summary is basically his favorite part of the ruling. In the same session, the Court rules 5-4 that states can count mail-in ballots after election day if procedures are in place, Trump immediately calls it a tremendous loss and redoubles his push for the SAVE America Act, and Aaron says Senate Republicans need to feel more pressure than they currently do. The geofence warrant case Chatrie v. United States results in a 6-3 ruling that location data from Google counts as a Fourth Amendment search, Colorado's Supreme Court unanimously blocks a Democrat redistricting map that would have flipped three House seats, and inmates briefly seize control of a North Carolina jail before law enforcement retakes it. A JetBlue flight reports a drone strike at 3,000 feet over JFK, Aaron does the math on whether any consumer drone can actually reach that altitude, and Paris Deputy Mayor Audrey Pulvar blames American air conditioners for Europe's deadly heat wave — Aaron calls all of Europe losers for letting their politicians get away with it and tells them to demand better. Aaron closes with the Iraq anti-corruption arrests, the US-Israel-Lebanon trilateral framework, and a theory on whether Iranian proxies are quietly being dismantled, before making a full endorsement of an unnamed man in black who shot BB guns at nude cyclists in Los Angeles.