2026

By Andrew Chung

Jan 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue rulings on Friday as it weighs cases with major implications both nationally and around the world including the legality of President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs.

The court indicated on its website on Tuesday that it could release decisions in argued cases when the justices take the bench during a scheduled sitting on Friday. The court does not announce ahead of time which rulings it intends to issue. 

The challenge to Trump’s tariffs is among the most closely watched of the cases awaiting decisions by the top U.S. judicial body that could impact the global economy and marks a major test of presidential powers.

During arguments heard by the court on November 5, conservative and liberal justices appeared to cast doubt on the legality of the tariffs, which Trump imposed by invoking a 1977 law meant for use during national emergencies. The case involves appeals by Trump’s administration after lower courts ruled that his unprecedented use of that law exceeded his authority.

The Republican president has continued to express concern about the possibility of losing the case. In a social media post on Friday, Trump said such a ruling would be a “terrible blow” to the United States. 

“Because of Tariffs, our Country is financially, AND FROM A NATIONAL SECURITY STANDPOINT, FAR STRONGER AND MORE RESPECTED THAN EVER BEFORE,” Trump said in another post on Monday. 

Trump invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act on goods imported from individual countries to address what he called a national emergency related to U.S. trade deficits, as well as on China, Canada and Mexico as economic leverage to curb the trafficking of the often-abused painkiller fentanyl and illicit drugs into the United States.

Other important cases are also awaiting rulings at the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority. 

In October, the court heard arguments in a challenge to another key section of the Voting Rights Act, the landmark 1965 federal law enacted by Congress to prevent racial discrimination in voting. The conservative majority appeared poised to curb the Voting Rights Act’s Section 2, which bars voting maps that would result in diluting the clout of minorities, even without direct proof of racist intent.

The court also heard arguments in October in a challenge on free speech grounds to a Colorado law banning psychotherapists from conducting “conversion therapy” that aims to change an LGBT minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity. A majority of the justices appeared ready to back a Christian licensed counselor who challenged the law under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections against government abridgment of free speech. 

The court has a busy few months ahead. On January 13, it will hear arguments in a bid to enforce Republican-backed state laws banning transgender athletes from female sports teams at public schools. 

On January 21, in another case with major implications for economic policy, it will hear arguments in Trump’s attempt to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, a move without precedent that challenges the central bank’s independence. Cook remains in place for the time being.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)

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President Donald Trump’s military intervention in Venezuela has emerged as a flash point in the closely watched Republican primary campaign between Kentucky U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a long-running Trump antagonist, and retired Navy SEAL officer Ed Gallrein, who has the president’s backing.

Massie, showing his non-interventionist leanings, fired off a series of social media posts criticizing the dramatic action that captured Nicolás Maduro and removed him from the South American country.

“Wake up MAGA,” Massie wrote. “VENEZUELA is not about drugs; it’s about OIL and REGIME CHANGE. This is not what we voted for.”

The congressman claimed that Trump wrongly circumvented Congress when ordering the attack.

“In the Constitution, the Founders vested war making power in Congress, not the Executive branch,” he wrote.

Gallrein responded that Massie had “shown his true colors” by criticizing the military operation, and said the congressman’s stance “is not what the people of this district expect from a Republican.”

“This operation sends a clear message: the United States will not allow rogue regimes to enable criminal networks or use oil and other resources to fuel our global adversaries,” Gallrein said on social media. “Holding bad actors accountable is how we restore law and order, deter aggression, and protect American families.”

Gallrein added that American intervention “opens the door to a new chapter for the people of Venezuela — one defined not by decades of oppression, but by the possibility of peace and prosperity.”

Gallrein is a farmer and businessman who had a long military career. Gallrein says he was part of the military operation decades ago that toppled another Latin American strongman: Panama’s Manuel Noriega. He is Trump’s choice to challenge Massie, a maverick who has had an up-and-down relationship with Trump.

The primary election in May will test Trump’s hold over Republican politics. The sudden emergence of Venezuela as an issue will test the president’s ability to hold together his coalition during a challenging election year for Republicans that could be defined by domestic concerns like health care and affordability.

The libertarian-leaning Massie has won reelection by lopsided margins since entering Congress in 2012 — even when he incurred Trump’s wrath.

The military action in Venezuela is the latest example of Massie standing up to Trump.

The congressman opposed the massive tax breaks and spending cuts package last year that Trump calls “beautiful” but Massie says will grow the national debt and hurt the economy. Massie said the president lacked authority to attack Iran’s nuclear sites without congressional approval. And Massie was at the forefront of efforts to force the public release of case files on the sex trafficking probe into the late Jeffrey Epstein.

In his bid to unseat the congressman, Gallrein has the president’s vaunted political operation on his side, and a super PAC launched by Trump aides has run ads attacking Massie. But he will confront an entrenched, well-funded incumbent in Massie.

Trump on Monday reiterated his support for Gallrein on his social media platform and urged other Republicans to stay out of the May primary.

“I have heard that there are other Candidates exploring a run for this seat, but I am asking all MAGA Warriors to rally behind Captain Ed Gallrein, the Candidate who is, far and away, best positioned to DEFEAT Third Rate Congressman Thomas Massie, a Weak and Pathetic RINO from the beautiful Commonwealth of Kentucky,” Trump said.

So far, at least two Democrats have filed to run for the congressional seat stretching across northern Kentucky, along with a third Republican besides Massie and Gallrein. The eventual Republican nominee will be heavily favored in a district last represented by a Democrat two decades ago.

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