Significance: First Merits Review of a Trump Policy

OA1205 - It’s another good news Friday! Voting rights expert Jenessa runs down some of the highlights of the off-year blue sweep in this week’s elections, as well as some recent unsung national victories for voting and disability rights. Matt then checks in on the Supreme Court’s oral arguments from the challenge to Trump’s unprecedented tariffs and why it is looking like he might actually lose his administration’s first attempt to defend one of his second administration’s policies on the merits. 

Finally, in today’s footnote: Why a federal judge recently decided that a lawsuit brought by the man whose penis was once featured on the cover of the most important albums of 1990s smelled like summary judgment. 

1. Supreme Court oral arguments in Learning Resources, Inc  v. Trump (11/5/2025)

2. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977

3. “Regulating Imports with a Reciprocal Tariff to Rectify Trade Pratcies that Contribute to Large and Persistent Annual United States Goods Trade Deficits,” The White House (4/2/2025)(executive order on tariffs)

4. Solicitor General John Sauer’s brief in Learning Resources 

5. Plaintiff’s second amended complaint in Elden v. Nirvana LLC et al

6. D.C. federal judge Coleen Kollar-Kotelly’s opinion in combined litigation challenging Trump’s executive order on citizenship requirements for voting (10/31/25)

7. DC federal judge Amir Ali’s order in National Association of the Deaf v. Trump  (11/4/25)

8. Order granting defendants’ motion for summary judgment in Elden v. Nirvana, LLC (9/30/2025)