DON GONYEA, HOST:
This term, the Supreme Court did the following - gutted much of the Voting Rights Act, narrowly preserved birthright citizenship, struck down limits on how much political parties coordinate spending with candidates, and handed the president the power to fire heads of independent federal government agencies. And that's just some of what the court decided this year.
So where does this term fit in the bigger picture? To help us sort through it all, we're joined by Jessica Levinson. She's a professor of law at Loyola Marymount University. Welcome.
JESSICA LEVINSON: Good to be here.
GONYEA: You have had a busy week, no doubt. The headlines have focused on some of these big cases we just mentioned - birthright citizenship, voting rights. What do you think history will remember this term for?
LEVINSON: This term, to me, was a lot about powers and who has the power and who gets to decide. I think it's undeniable that one of the biggest decisions this term was the tariff decision, saying to President Trump, you do not have the power by executive order to try and implement these tariffs. History will remember that as really laying out the boundaries between congressional power and executive power.
And then the other big case that I think will have a lasting impact from this term is the case that you mentioned, dealing with the president's power, again, to fire the heads of these executive agencies. And I think that could have a big impact on the working of those agencies for years to come.
GONYEA: Some of the biggest headlines were about those hot-button social issues, but some of the biggest legal changes came in cases that maybe got a lot less attention. Are there rulings that you think will have a really large, important impact over, say, the next 5 or 10 years?
LEVINSON: So you mentioned the Voting Rights Act case. I do think that the court's decision in Callais that's going to make it much harder for people to bring racial gerrymandering cases under that statute - I think that will have an impact. The tariff decision will have an impact in terms of essentially redrawing or solidifying the lines between presidential and congressional power in that area. I think that FTC decision where the Court said to the president, you can remove the heads of these independent executive agencies at will, will have a lasting impact.
And then, of course, there's the court's decision in the case dealing with the Trump administration's attempt to remove one of the members of the board of governors of the Fed. And there's the court's conclusion that the allegations that the Trump administration made against Lisa Cook likely did not satisfy that for-cause standard. These cases might not gain as many headlines as some of the issues that tend to be more culturally sensitive, but I think they will have a lasting impact.
GONYEA: Let's stick with those agencies and the president's ability to fire the heads of, again, these independent agencies that regulate everything, from workplace safety to financial markets. For those who don't follow administrative law, what changes could people actually notice because of that decision?
LEVINSON: So I think the changes that people could notice is that all of these agencies will be much more responsive to the hopes and desires of the president. And so whereas before, I think the heads of these agencies might have felt some protection against decisions that might not always be aligned with the president's political or policy wishes.
Now I think what you'll see is these agencies could have much more significant swings during presidential administrations. You could see a next president essentially clean house, completely changed the leadership in these agencies, and that would obviously change the decisions that these agencies make.
GONYEA: So more volatility president to president?
LEVINSON: I think that's right.
GONYEA: That's Jessica Levinson, professor of law at Loyola Marymount University. Thanks for helping us sort through this.
LEVINSON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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