Supreme Court Rules on Trump, Lisa Cook, Mail Ballots & Congress Moves Housing Bill

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**Gary Sterikoff** (1:04)
Welcome to Washington Today for Monday, June 29th, 2026 I'm Gary Sterikoff. Thank you for joining us. It was decision day at the Supreme Court. The justices rejected President Trump's attempt to immediately fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, but they expanded the president's power to fire other Federal officials, and they upheld state laws that count mail ballots that arrive after election day. On Capitol Hill, Politico is reporting that House Speaker Mike Johnson has officially sent the Bipartisan Housing Affordability Bill Congress passed last week to President Trump's desk for his signature. This, after the president canceled a Hill signing ceremony last week after demanding that Congress move on the Save America Act, that is the Republicans voting reform bill that's currently stalled in Congress. And the Save Act is also complicating efforts to pass the Annual Defense Policy and Programs Bill. And some House Republicans are threatening to tank a procedural vote on that bill if Save isn't included. We'll tell you all about it. And we'll tell you about this week's fireworks show on the National Mall. It promises to be a lot different from past years as we are up to celebrate America's 250th birthday.
From The Washington Post, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that President Donald Trump could fire the heads of independent agencies without cause, handing the president a major victory in his push to exert greater control over the federal bureaucracy and concentrate power in the White House.
The justices struck down a nearly century old precedent that has allowed Congress to insulate leaders of the Federal Trade Commission and roughly two dozen other independent regulatory agencies from political influence by requiring the president to have good reason to dismiss them. The 6-3 ideologically divided ruling will usher in one of the largest changes to the operation of the federal government in decades and fulfills a major goal of the Trump administration and many conservatives who have long argued the president should exercise unfettered authority over the executive branch, that from the Washington Post Today. Another major decision involved the president's firing of Federal Reserve Governor, Lisa Cook. And NBC News' Lawrence Hurley writing today that Chief Justice John Roberts rejected the Trump administration's contention that the president's firing of Cook for cause over allegations of mortgage fraud, which she denies, could not be reviewed in court and that she could not stay in office while contesting the decision. Justice Roberts wrote to accept any of those arguments would in effect transform the Federal Reserves for cause protection into at-will employment.
In a statement, Lisa Cook praised the court's decision saying the president's actions were quote, an attempt to remove me on a manufactured pretext because I refused to bow to political pressure and continued to set interest rates based only on what would best serve the American people. That's all from NBC News' Lawrence Hurley. The other major decision had to do with mail-in voting and from the Associated Press. The court's 5-4 decision rejected a Republican-led attack on laws in more than half the states and the District of Columbia that permit mailed ballots to arrive and be counted some number of days after the election provided they are postmarked by Election Day. The outcome spares officials the headache of changing their ballot rules just a few months before the 2026 midterm Congressional elections. In just over half those states, the more forgiving deadlines apply only to ballots cast by military and overseas voters.
The AP notes that Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the court's majority opinion. She was joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Kagan, Sotomayor and Jackson. They wrote that federal laws setting a single Election Day quote leave open when those votes must be received, but that Congress could change the law quote, if varied deadlines for ballot receipt similarly call for a national solution, the American people must choose it through their elected representatives. That all from the AP on the Supreme Court's decisions that came down today. Now, this afternoon, the president reacted to the court's decisions.