NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (June 29)

Welcome to NTD Evening News. Our top story tonight, the Supreme Court hands down a series of major rulings. The justices uphold mail-in ballots arriving after Election Day, expand President Trump's firing authority over the FTC, and reject his appeal in the E. Jean Carroll case. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Iran set to resume their talks after both sides clash over the weekend. What the White House is saying and how oil prices are reacting. Over 45,000 people still missing after devastating twin earthquakes hit Venezuela. Rescue teams are assisting, but a new video shows Venezuelan officials appearing to block rescue efforts in one part of the country. Jason Perry has the latest. And DHS Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen says deportations are on track to hit a record high, surpassing 2025. Jason Blair has more as Mullen enters 100 days in office. Democratic Socialists looking to build on their primary momentum as House Republicans face a new standoff over the Save America Act. Chris Bobb has the latest from Capitol Hill. And big events happening in New York City for the 4th of July and America's 250th. Rockets flying through the air and ships sailing the seas. Sean Marshall brings us more. This is MTV Evening News, live from our global headquarters in New York City, here's Kerry Dunst. Good evening, thank you for joining us tonight. The Supreme Court delivers a series of major rulings with broad implications for President Trump, executive power, and election law. NTV's Washington correspondent, Jack Bradley, has more. Well, because of the mail-in ballot ruling, which was a little bit surprising, gives people more time to vote illegally, let's say. The Supreme Court ruling that mail-in ballots can be counted after Election Day, as long as they're postmarked by Election Day. The majority said that federal law only requires when voters cast their ballots, not when election officials receive them. 18 states have similar laws. California, for example, can continue accepting ballots for up to 7 days after Election Day, and can continue counting them for up to 30 days. Now Congress has the power to pass a law requiring ballots to be received by Election Day. And President Trump is criticizing the ruling and calling on Congress to do just that, by passing the Save America Act, which would require voter ID, proof of citizenship, and sharply restrict mail-in voting to limited exceptions, like military deployment, disability, or travel. That was a ruling that was, I think it was very detrimental to honest elections. The Supreme Court also issued two major rulings on presidential authority. The justices ruled that President Trump acted within his constitutional authority when he fired Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter. The Slaughter case was the big case today, that was really a big case because it gave strength to presidents and strength to the presidency. The ruling overturns a landmark precedent that limits presidential power to remove a The majority says that the FTC exercises executive authority, meaning its commissioners answer to the president, and generally may be removed at will. Should we expect more firings as a result of this ruling? I don't think so. It gives me the right, and not me, it gives a president the right to do what the president should have, the right to do. But the court reached a different conclusion involving the Federal Reserve. The justices ruled that Fed Governor Lisa Cook wasn't given notice or an opportunity Cook's accused of falsifying mortgage documents, allegations she denies. The ruling was procedural. The court did not say that President Trump can never remove a Federal Reserve Governor. Instead, it held that Cook is entitled to due process while the case continues in lower courts. And the Supreme Court also declined to hear President Trump's appeal in the E. Jean Carroll case. The justices offered no explanation, leaving the lower court's judgment in place. A 2023 jury verdict that found the president liable for battery and defamation against the magazine columnist. That means the $5 million civil award to Carroll stands. Trump continues to deny these allegations, calling the case politically motivated and lacking evidence. Carroll's legal team says that the decision effectively ends the appeals process. Jack Bradley, NTV News, Washington. And President Trump says peace talks with Iran will resume tomorrow after new clashes over the weekend. He's also responding to new Supreme Court rulings on presidential powers and mail-in ballots, as we just heard from Jack. Joining us now live is NTD's White House correspondent, Iris Tao. Good evening, Iris. What's the latest out of the president? Good evening to you as well, Kerry. After over the weekend the U.S. and Iran again traded fire in the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump on Monday announcing that per request from Iran, the U.S. and Iran will resume peace talks in Doha on Tuesday. The White House confirming that Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff and Derek Kirshner are now heading into the region for high-level talks on a memorandum of understanding, while technical talks will also happen on the sideline. President Trump, meanwhile, today saying that those talks and the planning could be important or they could not be important either, as the White House press secretary says that either way, the U.S. wins. Meeting in Doha is going to be perhaps important, perhaps not. We're going to find out. But we're winning militarily. Either way, though, the United States of America wins. If the peace process plays, this MOU continues, gas prices will continue to tumble. We're seeing crude is lower than it was prior to the start. In the United States of America has the best and strongest military in the world. The president retains the right to use it. It comes after the two sides resumed launching military strikes after Iran attacked two vessels in the Strait of Hormuz last week. The U.S. responded by hitting a number of military targets in Iran. And Tehran then fired back by launching attacks on U.S. military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain. On Sunday, the U.S. said the two sides would stop fighting for now. Oil prices are way down. We hit $69 today. In other news, President Trump reacting to the latest Supreme Court rulings, hailing a win that grants presidents more power to fire leaders of government agencies and commissions. The president has the right to do this, and that has to do with a lot of agencies all throughout the system. President Trump also again urges Congress to pass the Safe America Act. Thus, as the Supreme Court decides in another case to allow counting of mail-in ballots that arrive late. It was a ruling that was, I think it was very detrimental to honest elections. How do you vote against Safe America? How do you vote against it? How do you vote against voter identification or proof of citizenship? The only people that would vote against that are people that are going to cheat in an election. And as the president criticizes the four Republican senators who are not willing to vote yes on the Safe America Act, he admits that the act might not eventually pass due to the current opposition. In other news, a president signing a presidential memorandum on Monday in the Oval Office aimed at making it easier for Americans to prepare their own cards with third-party cards. Back to you. And Iris, the president today again sounding the alarm on communism. Tell us more about that. Sure. So the president today in response to a question about whether or not he's worried about Socialist, Democratic Socialist candidates winning in New York primaries. He says that that's the most dangerous threat facing America today. Here's his response. Watch. They use the word Social Democrat because it sounds so nice, but it's really communism you're talking about. I think it's the biggest threat to our nation. There is maybe since our founding that includes World War One, World War Two, September 11th. It includes the Pearl Harbor attack. I think this is the biggest threat to our nation. The president has been stepping up his criticism on communism in recent weeks. He previously told NTD that while communist candidates or communism proposes things like free food, free housing, and free everything, 100 percent of the time, he says, it leads to nothing but only death, destruction, and squalor. Back to you. Thank you, Iris. And how will the Supreme Court ruling on mail-in ballots impact the midterms? And why does the president need the power to fire people working under his authority? Legal analysis tonight on Capitol Report. Tune in at 7 p.m. Eastern, just after evening news. Next, Secretary of Homeland Security Mark Wayne Mullen will hit 100 days in office on Wednesday. He says ICE is on track to surpass last year's deportation numbers by the end of August. And if you corresponded, Jason Blair has more on that. DHS Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen says 2026 deportation numbers are set to hit record highs and surpass last year's in about six to eight weeks. I'd say probably within the next six weeks, we'll probably pass what we deported all of 25, what we're going to do in 26, maybe two months. Mullen says there's been an influx of crossing attempts at the northern border, most of which, he says, are from Iran. We're seeing three or four a week, which isn't a huge influx, but it's still three or four that we're having to keep from getting in this country. We're working with a minister there, my counterpart in Canada, to really try shoring that up. They don't want this activity in their country either. The secretary says missing immigrant children are still a big priority for the department. He says they're still working on locating 300,000 missing kids. We've located over 147,000 now, and not all of them have been in great condition. We've had some of the most horrific stories you can think of. Lance Shroyer was nominated by President Trump over the weekend to be the director of ICE. Shroyer has about three decades of law enforcement experience in Oklahoma. Mullen says he's the right person for the job. He's going to bring in professionalism, he's going to bring in structure, he's going to put in our standard operating procedures, and he's also going to be somebody that's going to be able to do it. Shroyer's next step is to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate before he can officially be appointed. That hearing is not scheduled yet, but is expected to happen towards the end of July. Reporting in Washington, D.C., Jason Blair, NTD News. And Congress returns to Washington this week as Republicans seize on new questions about the Democratic Party's left flank while facing their own internal standoff over President Trump's Save America Act. NTD's Chris Baugh brings us more on that. Kind of getting sick and tired of these Democrats getting by with claiming they're moderates. And they're disgusted that these communist folks are being elected to Congress and the Democrat Party. Now they're claiming all this, all this false outrage about these leftists. They're going to move to the left. Their leadership will move to the left because they care more about being in leadership than they do about our country. Last week's Democratic primary victories in New York are fueling a new debate over the party's direction, with Republicans arguing socialist candidates are gaining influence inside the Democratic Party. The Democratic Socialists of America are now hoping to build on those victories in Colorado, where Democratic Socialist Milad Quiroz is challenging three-decade incumbent Representative Diana DeGette in Tuesday's Democratic primary. These issues are popular with the voters of Denver, right? In fact, socialism is more popular than capitalism for voters of this city. What we're fighting for is to extend that kind of guarantee and that security into our health care, into our housing, into our child care and our elder care. Political analysts say the race reflects broader dissatisfaction among some Democratic voters with the party establishment. I think that shift is a part of generally anti-establishment. The traditional Democratic Party in stances and positions haven't really met the needs and desires of the core Democratic constituency. So they're looking for something else. But supporters of DeGette say experience still matters. We need somebody who has the experience and knows how to deal with Congress now. And we can't wait for somebody else to run. The renewed focus on the party's left flank comes after CNN reported newly elected Democratic Congressional nominee Daryliza Avila Chevalier had operated a now-deleted social media account containing favorable references to communism, Marxism, Vladimir Lenin and other communist figures, along with earlier posts calling to abolish police, prisons and borders. Chevalier has previously said she has grown since writing the posts and is focused on serving her community. Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman reacted on social media, writing, quote, Will Democrats continue to defend Chevalier or pretend, oh, I wasn't really paying attention? Meanwhile, House Republicans return to Washington, facing another showdown of their own. Leadership does not currently expect to allow Representative Annapolina Luna's amendments, adding the Save America Act to this year's National Defense Authorization Act. Luna has warned she'll vote against the procedural rule if her amendment isn't made in order, threatening another week of legislative gridlock. At the same time, President Trump now has the bipartisan housing bill on his desk, after previously warning he would not sign legislation until Republicans advance the Save America Act. If he neither signs nor vetoes the bill, it would automatically become law in about 10 days. Chris Bobb, NTD News. And Colorado's Supreme Court has rejected new ballot measures that would have redrawn the state's congressional maps for 2028 and 2030. The seven justices ruling unanimously against the effort. Democrats had attempted to redraw Colorado's maps amid a nationwide redistricting effort that was undertaken by both parties. A proposed constitutional amendment would have paused the state's independent redistricting commission. The proposal would also have implemented the Democrat favoring map for 2028 and 2030. However, the Colorado justices ruled that the proposed amendment violated the state's constitution's single-subject requirement. Now Colorado's U.S. House of Representatives delegation is evenly split. It's represented by four Democrats and four Republicans. However, Democrats do occupy both of Colorado's U.S. Senate seats. And an oppressive heat dome is set to hover over the eastern portion of the U.S. this week as Americans are preparing to celebrate the Fourth of July. Holiday traditions have already been disrupted amid fires in the West, and now the threat of blistering heat could impact holiday plans for many in the Northeast. Here's more on the weather. Millions of Americans Monday are bracing for a scorching week. As days of blistering heat and humidity are expected to fall over the eastern half of the U.S. and stick around for the holiday weekend. We have an extreme heat warning that we've issued that goes into effect today. We have three consecutive days where it reaches 100 to 105 or potentially greater. The heat index value overnight will probably only dip below the 90 degree mark for six to maybe eight hours overnight. Major cities like New York, Washington, Atlanta and Nashville could see feels like temperatures at and above 100 degrees starting Monday through the Fourth of July. Officials are urging caution as people prepare for a weekend of celebrations outdoors where they could be exposed to the dangerous heat for longer periods of time. Self-awareness is huge when it comes to knowing when to call 9-1-1 or not. You know, if you don't feel comfortable getting yourself up to a hospital, by all means, we're here to serve the community. So call us. Meanwhile, authorities in several western states have banned or limited fireworks for the holiday due to ongoing wildfires. This man in the Lake County, Colorado area described watching a fire blaze from across a lake. We figured we'd pack up and then we got a text, emergency evacuation, so packed up less than an hour later. Fastest pack up ever. Tens of thousands of people are still unaccounted for in Venezuela after devastating twin earthquakes hit the country. Rescue teams are assisting, but now a new video shows Venezuelan officials appearing to block rescue efforts in one part of the country. NTD's Jason Perry brings us more. Survivors of the devastating twin earthquakes in Venezuela were seen sheltering in makeshift tents on Monday as they deal with the aftermath. According to a Venezuelan website that tracks people missing in the earthquake, around 45,000 people are still unaccounted for. God lifted me up, gave me the strength to get up, to get my family out of there, and to help others who were there as well. But unfortunately, my daughter wasn't with me. She was in Tower 27. As of Monday afternoon, the death toll is over 1,450 people as rescue teams continue searching through damaged and unstable buildings, an aftershock causing these rescue workers to scramble, as authorities have reported more than 430 aftershocks. But rescue efforts continue in the dangerous conditions. Also on Monday, a man who had been buried in the rubble since Friday was found alive. Interim Venezuelan President, Delce Rodriguez, posted on social media that the man had been trapped in the rubble for 106 hours. And Venezuelan opposition leader, Maria Carina Machado, saying on Monday that she plans to return to the country to be with the Venezuelan people during the difficult time. That will be her first time back since she left secretly last year to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Also on Monday, the U.S. releasing footage of a disaster assistance response team that arrived in Venezuela over the weekend. According to the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, experts on the team will be providing operational leadership and coordinating between U.S. responders and local authorities on the ground. But a video posted on X by Cheo0607 appears to show Venezuelan Interior Minister, Diosdado Cabello Rondon, preventing rescue workers from entering a certain area. Rondon has not commented on the video, but social media users are pointing out that Rondon is currently wanted by the United States with a $25 million reward for information leading to his arrest. He's accused of narco-terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy, and conspiracy to use and carry machine guns and destructive devices in furtherance of a drug crime. Other countries, such as Spain and Turkey, have also deployed teams to Venezuela to help with disaster response efforts. Venezuela says it has received help from 24 countries, which have sent more than 500 tons of supplies and more than 2,700 rescue and support personnel. Jason Perry, NTD News. Coming up, three firefighters were killed while battling wildfires near the Colorado Utah border over the weekend. Officials announced they were part of a specialized crew responding to the fast-growing fires. Christina Corona reports. And big events happening in New York City for the 4th of July and America's 250th. Rockets flying through the air and ships sailing the seas. Sean Marshall brings us more. 250 years of freedom will be brought to life in our nation's capital with musical performances, tributes to American heroes, and a massive fireworks show you don't want to miss. Join NTD this Independence Day for our coverage of Freedom 250's Salute to America to celebrate America 250. July 4th at 7 p.m. Eastern on NTD News. I am blind but I need not see. I know this road is there for me. If I'm really free. Kids love it. Parents trust it. Obviously. Explore GJW Plus Kids Series and Gone Dune Campus courses led by expert educators. This is spectacular. Children will learn values like respect, responsibility, and knowledge in language, science, and more. Wow. All while having fun. Perfect. Subscribe today at GJW Plus Kids where learning meets fun. Getting prescription glasses from Select Specs is easier than you might think. Select your frames from our £6 range, in-house brands, or our extensive designer collections. Then enter, upload or email your latest prescription and our website will analyze it and help you select the best lenses and options to suit you. Click to place the order and your new Select Specs glasses are delivered right to your door. Ordering your prescription glasses is as easy as 1, 2, C with Select Specs at selectspecs.com. Looking for a healthy and smooth tasting brew? Drop by Day's Coffee Roasters today and explore our wide selection of specialty grade small batch roasted coffee. Home to North America's first enzyme fermented coffee. We source a wide selection of specialty grade coffee beans from around the world and our baristas are ready to craft your customized brew. Visit Day's Coffee at 28 North Street, Middletown, New York. Come experience a brew like no other. Whispered across generations, a hidden secret unveils the essence of longevity and vitality. A timeless legend regarding energy and wonder. Rooted in ancient health wisdom, we proudly introduce Pure Tang Black Ginseng. A 100% natural, organic energy drink made from premium 6-year-old Korean ginseng. It takes 2,260 days and nights from seed to growth, undergoing a meticulous 9-step process of steaming and drying. Black ginseng reaches its full potency, enriched with ginsenicide RG3 and enhanced absorption efficiency. No sugar, no caffeine, no artificial ingredients. Experience the pure, natural power of Pure Tang Black Ginseng. Nourish your body, strengthen your immunity, and boost your energy. To order Pure Tang Black Ginseng, please visit puretang.com. Welcome back to NTD Evening News, I'm Cary Dunst. Federal officials have identified the three firefighters who were killed while battling the wildfires near the Colorado-Utah border over the weekend. Authorities say the crew tried to shield themselves by deploying emergency fire shelters before they were overcome by the flames. NTD's Christina Corona has more. Three firefighters were killed while battling wildfires near the Colorado-Utah border over the weekend. Officials say the crew was responding to the knolls and gore fires when rapid-changing fire conditions trapped them. As the flames closed in, officials said the firefighters tried to shield themselves by developing emergency fire shelters, but they were overcome by the fire. Federal officials identified the victims as 38-year-old Emily Barker of Michigan, 27-year-old Nick Hutcherson of Arizona, and 26-year-old Sydney Watson of Alabama. Officials say the firefighters were part of a specialized crew that quickly responds to remote wildfires before they can grow out of control. They were also part of an interagency response Two other firefighters were injured. The knolls and gore fires have since merged into what's now known as the Snyder-Mesa fire, which has burned more than 28,000 acres near the Colorado-Utah border. The tragedy comes as wildfire danger continues to grow across the West. More than two dozen large fires are burning, with thousands of firefighters deployed across the region. Christina Corona, NTD News. After losing billions in recalls since 2024, Ford Motor Company is now number one in a recent quality survey. The company says it has rehired experienced engineers to train ineffective AI tools. NTD's David Lam has more on that. Ford Motor Company has been hiring veteran engineers for their human experience. Over the last three years, Ford has hired 350 engineers, referred to as greybeards internally, which comprise both former employees and workers from its suppliers. Their job is to help train staff and reprogram artificial intelligence tools that are ineffective. Charles Poon, one of Ford's vice presidents, says artificial intelligence is a fantastic tool, but it's only as good as the information you use to train it. By mid-2024, product recalls were costing Ford almost $5 billion per year. The VP says the company didn't pay as much attention as they should have to the experience of their engineers who have been through many product cycles. But since the company's efforts to improve quality control, Ford now ranks number one among mainstream brands in the JD Power 2026 initial quality survey for the first time since 2010. Ford says the engineers act as auditors, reviewing designs each week and eliminating potential failure points before blueprints reach the factory floor. David Lam, NTD News. And New York City is a place, of course, steeped in history dating back to the birth of the U.S. And a number of big events have been planned for America's 250th celebration on July 4th. NTD's Sean Marshall has more on that. New York City is one of the top places to be this 4th of July for America's 250th anniversary celebration. Many of the city's annual events have been dialed up to illuminate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The bipartisan America 250 organization has announced a national supporting partnership with Sailforth 250. They are organizing a 30-nation international tall ship extravaganza in New York on July 4th, 2026. In conjunction with the U.S. Navy, the events will include the largest ever international naval review and a multi-nation aerial review featuring the Navy's Blue Angels in New York. The traditional celebration of Fleet Week, where active-duty maritime soldiers visit the Big Apple, has been pushed back six weeks to coincide with America's semi-quincentennial. Members of the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard will dock in New York Harbor on July 3rd and stay through July 8th. Macy's is also having their annual fireworks show. Today we're out here at the desert. It's our pyrotesting day. It's our opportunity to test all of our brand new shells and effects for our 50th Macy's 4th of July fireworks. We're going to have a couple of rounds of testing from our bridge pyrotechnics to some of our aerial new effects. It's our opportunity just to see everything in real life, do our final tests and tweaks, and get ready for the 4th of July. They're promising to illuminate New York City's iconic skyline with a kaleidoscope of color as it celebrates its own 50th anniversary. Here we have over 85,000 shells and effects. It's going to be a variety of pyrotechnics coming off of the Brooklyn Bridge. Our six barges on the east side and on the west side. We also have a brand new fantastic light show that's going to illuminate the Brooklyn Bridge in a way that's never been done before. Also, be sure to check out America250.org for events around the United States and virtual experience options. Sean Marshall, NTD News. And coming up, the Supreme Court had a busy day issuing rulings and deciding whether to hear consequential cases. We're going to speak with attorney Zach Smith for analysis. You've done the hard part. You quit smoking. Now do the easy part and get scanned for lung cancer. If you smoked, you may still be at risk. But early detection could save your life. Talk to your doctor and learn more at SavedByTheScan.org. You see certain things get reincarnated in your children. My daughter is very much inspired by my wife's artistic pursuits. So my daughter started making necklaces. She makes what we call affirmation fashion. I tell her every day that your black is beautiful. Your black is beautiful. And if there's anything better than being beautiful, it's being smart. If there's anything better than being smart, it's being kind. And reaffirming that every day is our method of making sure her chin never drops. My dad wasn't around and I remember riding a bike and falling off and cutting myself and me never just wanting to get back on it. People ask, how your children learn how to ride a bike? And you did. I didn't teach them. I just created an environment where they taught themselves and all I had to do was be there. Here you go. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome back to NTT Evening News. I'm Kerry Dunst. The Supreme Court had a busy day. They issued rulings and also decided whether to hear consequential cases. Joining us tonight to unpack it all is Zach Smith. He's a senior legal fellow and manager of the Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program in the Institute for Constitutional Government at the Heritage Foundation. Zach, let's start with the two election-related decisions. The justices ruled 5-4 that it is acceptable to accept mail-in ballots after Election Day, and they also agreed to hear a case on whether states can remove non-citizens from the voter rolls in the lead-up to an election within 90 days. Can you break those two cases down? Yeah, well, obviously in the latter case, that'll be next term. We still have to go through full briefing and arguments in that case, so I'm sure we'll hear more about that case in the fall. Now, in terms of the decision that the justices issued today in Watson versus RNC, this was a very unfortunate decision, I think. Essentially what the justices were being asked to decide is whether in a law passed by Congress requiring that federal elections occur on a single day, whether Election Day really means a single day. And what the justices decided in this decision, more or less, is that it does not. And so now Mississippi can continue receiving and counting absentee ballots up to five business days after Election Day. But what's even more egregious is that other states have much longer periods of time. Some states allow for ballots to be received and counted up to 14 days after Election Day. Some states even push that out as far as 21 days, three weeks after Election Day, to receive and count ballots. So this is a very unfortunate decision, and I think it really highlights, by passing the Save America Act with common sense election integrity reforms, why that is so crucial in this aftermath. Yeah, and of course President Trump beating the drum for the Save America Act to close some of those loopholes and allow the legislation to be much less gray, as you pointed out. An unfortunate interpretation of a single word, and of course the judges split 5-4. Let's move on to executive powers. The justices agreed that the president can fire an FTC commissioner, but cannot fire a board member of the Federal Reserve. Can you help us understand why that's not a contradiction? Well, these cases are a little difficult to reconcile, and I think you even saw Justice Barrett pointing that out in one of her separate opinions today. But essentially what the court decided in the Slaughter case, Slaughter vs. Trump, is that the president does have the constitutional authority, under Article II of the Constitution, to fire members of so-called independent agencies, like the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC. And so while the court decided that in the Slaughter case, in the Cook case, which did have a slightly different procedural posture, the issues were slightly different, but in that case, the court said at least for now, the president cannot remove Elisa Cook from her position on the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors. Now, there are a few important distinctions. In the Cook case, Elisa Cook, the president, were primarily litigating over statutory issues. What is the statute concerning in governing the Federal Reserve? What do the four calls removal provisions in that specific statute mean? In the Slaughter case involving the FTC, they were primarily litigating constitutional issues. What does Article II of the Constitution require? So that's one difference. Another difference is that in the Cook case, this is in a preliminary posture, meaning that there's still going to be further litigation on the merits of the case. Basically, the dispute in this case was whether Elisa Cook can keep her job while the president is litigating her case in the lower federal courts. And so what the court said today is that yes, she can, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Justice Clarence Thomas, and others wrote about some of those other corollary issues circling in this case as well. Yeah, it seems like on its face a contradiction, but as you break it down, you can see where the nuance lies. I do want to move to this data privacy case. This was fascinating. If you're interested in technology and how that applies to the law as, of course, technology constantly evolving, the Supreme Court ruled in a bank robbery suspect case that the suspect's cell phone location data is protected by the Constitution. Could you break that one down? And were you surprised by that? Yeah, I talked about this on some of my social media channels at ZaconLaw. I went into depth in this case, but essentially this case involved what is known as geofence warrants, where the government can ask Google or other big tech providers to tell them everyone who is at a particular location at a particular time based on the information that the user's cell phone was providing to Google or Meta or Apple or whatever other tech provider is out there. And there are a couple of issues in this case. One, the government said that because of the way these companies kept and stored the data, that no search even occurred. And that even if a search did occur, they were sufficiently particular to comport with the Fourth Amendment. And so what the justices decided today, in an opinion by Justice Elena Kagan, the court said that, yes, a search did occur, meaning that there will need to be a warrant or an exception to the warrant requirement in order for the search to be valid. And the court said, we're going to send it back to the lower federal courts to deal with these other issues about particularity, whether other warrant requirements have indeed been met. Yeah, I'd like to spend another beat on this one, because it really is fascinating. At issue, I believe, is is the data part of your personal property? That is what the Fourth Amendment essentially is protecting. Is that correct? Well, the Fourth Amendment protects property, papers, certain other interests that we citizens have. So that's part of the issue. When you turn over this data voluntarily to a third party like Google, do you have a reasonable expectation of privacy? That's the governing test the Supreme Court has used for Fourth Amendment cases for many years now. And so that was one type of dispute that was happening. The other interesting dispute that was happening, and Justice Samuel Alito highlighted this during oral arguments and again in his separate writing today, is that largely this specific case may in fact be moot. Because after this issue of geofence warrants came up, after the government started requesting this type of information, Google actually changed its practices and stopped storing a lot of this location-specific data in the cloud, started saving it locally on users' devices, which as a practical matter means that a lot of the issues in this chattery case may no longer be live because of changes in practice that Google has in. And I want to just ask a follow-up here because it really is fascinating. This was of course a bank robbery. Certainly not a victimless crime, but also not, I don't believe in this case, a violent crime. But in the case of something much more violent or heinous, are there methods after this decision for law enforcement to be able to use this geofencing data to establish who might be the perpetrator? Well, I think many bank robbery victims, they may disagree with me that bank robbery is not a violent crime. It certainly can be. But this actually came up in oral arguments. If there are exigent circumstances, which can be an exception to the warrant requirement, law enforcement would still likely be able to avail themselves of this type of information. Say they're looking for a missing child, they're doing kidnapping, something like that. This type of information may still be available. And what's really going to be interesting and very important to watch is what the lower federal courts do now that this case has been sent back down to them. Kind of the threshold issue that the government was arguing about and that the court addressed today was, was this even a search? Because if there is no search, the warrant requirement does not apply. But since the court said there's a search, now we have to get into whether these geofence warrants are in fact valid. Do they look like general warrants, which were hated during the Revolutionary War period, which were one of the reasons the colonists rebelled against Great Britain? Or are they sufficiently specific, in particular, past constitutional muster? Well, technology law, such an interesting and emerging field. I do want to go on to medical freedom. I was a bit surprised by this one. The justices were one vote short of accepting a case from health care workers in New York who were denied religious exemptions from their employer's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. That, of course, implemented by Kathy Hochul. What happened here? And are you surprised that they didn't take on the case? Well, I haven't had a chance to look closely at the orders list today. I've been talking mostly about the decisions the Supreme Court issued. But look, religious liberty is a very important issue that the justices routinely take up. Keep in mind, it only takes four justices to agree to hear a case. And so we don't necessarily know why justices take or don't take cases unless they write separately to explain their rationale. So I look forward to seeing what the justices who wrote the case