Joe Biden, 45th President

TikTok, ByteDance, and TikTok users challenged the federal Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, arguing that the law violated the First Amendment by targeting a major speech platform. The Supreme Court affirmed the D.C. Circuit. The Court assumed without deciding that First Amendment scrutiny applied and held that the challenged provisions satisfied intermediate scrutiny because Congress had a supported national-security interest in preventing a foreign adversary from collecting large amounts of U.S. user data through TikTok. The ruling was narrow and focused on TikTok's ownership, scale, and data risks.

Grants Pass reversed a Ninth Circuit rule that had limited enforcement of public-camping bans against unhoused people when shelter space was unavailable. The Court held that generally applicable camping restrictions do not impose cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. The ruling does not decide every possible constitutional or statutory challenge to homelessness enforcement.

Jarkesy held that the SEC could not seek civil penalties for securities fraud in an administrative proceeding without providing a jury trial. The Court held that the action resembled common-law fraud and sought legal penalties, so the Seventh Amendment applied. The ruling narrows agency use of in-house adjudication for some penalty actions.

Rahimi upheld 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8), which bars firearm possession by people subject to certain domestic-violence restraining orders. The Court held that temporarily disarming a person found by a court to pose a credible threat is consistent with the historical tradition of firearm regulation.

Students for Fair Admissions held that Harvard's race-conscious admissions program violated Title VI because it would violate Equal Protection standards if used by a public university. The Court rejected the admissions programs at Harvard and UNC under strict scrutiny and effectively ended the prevailing model of affirmative action in selective college admissions.

West Virginia v. EPA held that EPA lacked clear congressional authorization to use Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act for the Clean Power Plan's generation-shifting approach. The Court used the major questions doctrine to require clear authorization for agency actions with major economic and political significance. The ruling limited EPA's climate-regulatory authority and became a key precedent for challenges to agency power.

Dobbs held that the Constitution does not protect a right to abortion, overruled Roe and Casey, and upheld Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban. The ruling ended nearly 50 years of federal constitutional abortion protection and allowed states to ban or severely restrict abortion.

Bruen held that New York's proper-cause requirement violated the Second and Fourteenth Amendments. The Court said the government must justify modern firearm regulations by showing consistency with the Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation. The ruling expanded public-carry rights and transformed lower-court review of gun laws.

Brnovich upheld Arizona's out-of-precinct rule and ballot-collection restriction against Section 2 Voting Rights Act challenges. The Court announced guideposts for assessing voting burdens and racial disparities in vote-denial cases. The ruling made it harder for plaintiffs to challenge voting rules that burden minority voters but are framed as ordinary election administration.