How SCOTUS's Decisions Will Change The Government

Hi readers, happy Thursday! Today we’re covering the earthquake in Venezuela (and its massive bailout plan), a bipartisan bill frozen by Trump, Europe’s record-breaking heat wave, more U.S.-Iran negotiations, New York’s primaries, Trump’s election plans getting binned, and Meta’s employee-tracking snafu.

“Whoever will be free must make himself free. Freedom is no fairy gift to fall into a man's lap. What is freedom? To have the will to be responsible for one's self.” ― Max Stirner

Decisions, Decisions…

Monday was a big day for Donald Trump and the Supreme Court. In a 6-3 decision split along conservative-liberal lines, the nation’s top court overturned a 91-year-old precedent that kept independent federal agencies, well, independent from the executive branch. The decision is a massive expansion of the president’s powers, and will grant him unprecedented power over some of the most important agencies in the country.

The case was centered around the president’s March 2025 firing of Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. According to precedent, the president isn’t allowed to fire the heads of independent federal agencies (think the CIA, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) without “cause,” which is defined as “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.” In a move to challenge that precedent, Trump provided no reason for his decision to fire Slaughter, only stating that her “continued service on the FTC is inconsistent with [the Trump] Administration's priorities.” She, of course, issued a legal challenge to that firing, which was sent around the court system until ending up at the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court’s 6 conservative justices ruled that Slaughter’s firing was lawful, overturning a 1935 landmark decision known as Humphrey's Executor. In that decision, a previous Supreme Court ruled that the president can fire anyone working at executive-branch agencies without cause, but did need cause to fire heads of agencies that “are neither political nor executive, but predominantly quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative” – those being the independent agencies we mentioned before.

“Although it is up to the Senate to decide whether to confirm those with whom the President would prefer to work, neither Congress nor the courts may saddle him with those with whom he cannot work. Subordinates who exercise the President's power are subject to removal by him. Then, and only then, can they remain accountable to the President, and the President to the people,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts on behalf of the court’s conservative majority. 

“The Court gives the President a power unknown even to the English Crown against which the Founders revolted, elevating him above his once-coequal branches by transforming a duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed into a license to act in defiance of those very laws,” wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her dissenting opinion. With this decision in place, the president will have the ability to change the leadership of some of the most important federal agencies at will, which will lead to massive shifts in government policy whenever a new party wins a presidential election.

The Supreme Court delivered another decision on the same day, temporarily protecting Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from being fired over allegations that she committed mortgage fraud. “Not only the fact of independence but also the appearance of independence is key to the Federal Reserve’s design,” wrote Roberts on behalf of the 5-4 majority, which defended Cook due to procedural issues in the federal government’s firing case. The court’s decision does, however, leave Cook open to firing in the future if the Trump administration wants to bring another (better-executed) mortgage fraud case against her.

The View From Venezuela

• The official death toll from the pair of earthquakes (magnitude 7.2 and 7.5) that hit Venezuela last week is nearing 1,500 as rescue efforts continue. In a statement on Sunday, the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly listed off some statistics regarding the damage from the quakes: the death toll has reached 1,450, the number of people injured has reached 3,150, at least 12,721 people have been displaced, and 774 buildings were brought down by the tremors. According to a website run by Venezuela’s opposition, just under 50,000 people were unaccounted for on Sunday.

• “We are in critical hours, in crucial hours to continue rescuing lives and to build camps where those people who have lost their homes, or who cannot return, for whatever reason, ​to their residences can stay,” he stated. Over 2,600 foreign rescue workers have traveled to the country in order to help the recovery process, and the U.S. has pledged more than $150 million in aid. “There exists a window of roughly three days, 72 hours, where the probability afterwards decreases that you can save people alive,” said the leader of a Swiss rescue team dispatched to Venezuela – that 72 hour mark passed on Saturday night.

Memorandum Of Misunderstandings

• Late last week, the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding (MOU) enforcing an “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts” between the two nations faltered. On Thursday, Iran allegedly struck a cargo ship traveling through the Strait of Hormuz with an unspecified projectile. The U.S. responded by launching missiles at multiple targets across Iran, which prompted Tehran to launch strikes on U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, though the U.S. has said that none of those attacks landed. 

• Late on Sunday, both sides agreed to “stand down,” according to an unnamed U.S. official, who added that ships would again be able to move through the Strait of Hormuz “freely” and that the two countries had agreed to return to the negotiating table. While Iran has denied that it plans to participate in technical peace talks this week, U.S. officials are (as usual) broadcasting the opposite. “IRAN HAS REQUESTED A MEETING. IT WILL TAKE PLACE TOMORROW IN DOHA!” wrote Trump via TruthSocial. The White House’s press secretary echoed that claim, stating that special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner “will be flying to Doha for high-level meetings this week, as we continue to discuss the memorandum of understanding.”

Additional World News

• Some 1,000 additional heat deaths recorded in France (AP)

• Pakistan Attacks Afghanistan, Killing More Than 30 (NYT, $)

• Germany shooting: Six killed at centre for mothers and children in Stade (BBC)

• Yen Falls to 40-Year Low Versus Dollar, Traders Alert for Potential FX Intervention (WSJ, $) 

• ‘Constitutional coup’ claims as Zimbabwe senate approves extending presidential term (Guardian)

• VW weighs up to 100,000 job cuts, four plant closures in biggest overhaul yet, sources say (Reuters)

The U.S. Military, Defeated By The Flu

• In April, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the U.S. military would no longer make flu shots mandatory for servicemembers, citing “medical autonomy” and religious freedom concerns. Earlier this month, though, military bases across the country were granted exemptions from Hegseth’s vaccination policy, allowing them to mandate servicemembers to receive flu vaccines. But it appears that those exemptions were issued too late as a flu outbreak at Lackland air force base in San Antonio, Texas has infected over 275 military personnel, sending at least 4 to the hospital.

• You might be thinking that everything should be fine now that the vaccine mandates are temporarily back in place, but the story doesn’t end there. The catch is that all of those now-mandated vaccines are set to expire today, and the military won’t be able to receive any new vaccines until August or later because manufacturers are working to create the vaccines for next flu season’s virus. 

• “​​The earliest that we’ve been able to vaccinate historically has been late August or early September – certainly by the end of September – but I don’t think you can count on them being available before maybe the fourth week of August,” said a former official at the US Defense Health Agency. “You just can’t change that. The manufacturing timeline is basically etched in stone.” This means the world’s most powerful military could genuinely struggle to contain flu outbreaks over the next two months as it waits for a vaccine.

Mail-In Is Still In The Cards

• While the conservative-controlled Supreme Court has bowed to Trump’s demands in most of its rulings over the past few years, the court stood firm yesterday when it protected mail-in voting with a 5-4 decision. According to the ruling, state governments are free to count mail-in ballots that they receive after Election Day, so long as the ballots are postmarked before voting closes. 

• The ruling is the latest development in a Trump White House challenge against a Mississippi law which allows election officials to count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day, even if they’re received up to five days late. If Trump’s lawyers were successful in their challenge, 30 states would have to end their mail-in ballot grace periods, making voting much more difficult for people across the country. 

Additional USA News

• Kids’ safety package wins House approval (Politico)

• SpaceX, US government discuss stock donation for Trump Accounts (Semafor)

• Trump nominates Keith Sonderling to permanent role of labor secretary (Guardian)

• A 'heat dome' is driving dangerous heat across the U.S. into the July 4 weekend (NPR)

• Happy birthday, America? At 250, nation may be too divided to celebrate as one (Reuters)

• Winds hamper crews as fast-moving fire in Utah, the largest in the US, burns through forests (AP)

There’s A New Super-Duper Computer In Town

• Earlier this month, the list of the most powerful supercomputers in the world (known as TOP500) was updated. And for the first time in almost a decade, a Chinese supercomputer reigns supreme. The new computer is named LineShine, and was installed at the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen. 

• The computer has a maximum power consumption capacity of roughly 42.2 megawatts (enough to power 30,000 to 40,000 residential homes) and can complete over 2 quintillion computing operations per second. LineShine is also fully Chinese – the computer consists of roughly 45,000 CPUs (instead of GPUs, which are traditionally used to power cutting-edge supercomputers like this) made by Huawei and the National Supercomputing Centre, and it also runs on Kylin OS, a Linux-based operating system that’s widespread in Chinese computer research. That’s largely because the U.S. has blocked the export of many computer components to China in order to slow down Beijing’s technological progress.

• LineShine’s rise to the top means it’s dethroned El Capitan, the U.S.-based supercomputer that’s ruled the TOP500 list since 2024. LineShine’s performance eclipsed El Capitan’s by over 20% according to the list, which takes into account theoretical top speed, real-world performance, and energy efficiency.

Additional Reads

• How to end a TV show (Verge)

• An American in Paris, Sans Air-Conditioning (Curbed) 

• Coincidences in My Life Have Me Wondering (Nautilus) 

• OpenAI Leans Toward Holding Up I.P.O. Until Next Year (NYT, $) 

• Tiny Antarctic sea creature could be key to treating melanoma, researchers say (Guardian)

• I'm in therapy for my 14-hour-a-day phone addiction and I'm determined to beat it (BBC) 

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Peanut For Your Thoughts

There were two building fires within a 1-mile radius of my house today so I guess summer is here

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