Up First briefing: Supreme Court rulings; Iran-US talks; Murder rates : NPR

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Today marks the last day of the U.S. Supreme Court’s current term, and major rulings are expected. Two key cases involve bans on transgender athletes. The court’s possibly most anticipated ruling focuses on birthright citizenship. The case questions whether the U.S. should automatically grant citizenship to children born here, particularly in light of President Trump’s executive order to deny citizenship to children whose parents entered the U.S. illegally or are on temporary visas. At the heart of the issue is the 14th Amendment, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

• 🎧 A ruling today in favor of Trump could overturn over a century of legal precedent and create logistical challenges for millions of mixed-status families, NPR’s Ximena Bustillo tells Up First. A ruling against Trump would be a setback for one of his many immigration-related campaign promises. The administration aims to restrict the ways people can legally be in the country. Last week, the Supreme Court gave the administration more power to end the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program, particularly for Haitians and Syrians. There are TPS recipients with children who are U.S. citizens at the center of the debate over birthright citizenship, Bustillo says. Even if the court supports birthright citizenship, immigrant advocates say families may still have to make difficult decisions about whether to stay together. The administration’s policies have been narrowing legal migration, and the fact that these cases are being litigated in the high court highlights that message, Bustillo says.
• ➡️ A slew of Supreme Court decisions came down yesterday. Justices upheld grace periods for mail-in ballots, took a sledgehammer to much of the federal government’s regulatory framework, cemented the president’s power to remove members of independent agencies at will, limited law enforcement’s use of geofencing warrants to see who was near the scene of a crime, and rejected Trump’s attempt to fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve governing board.

The United States and Iran have sent delegations to Qatar, after exchanging attacks in recent days. The White House said that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff were on their way there for talks about a long-term peace agreement. Iranian officials have made it clear that they will not meet with them. For Iran, this meeting appears to be more focused on discussing with Qatari officials the release of approximately $6 billion in frozen assets. The release of this money, which is about half of the assets frozen in Qatar, was included in a memorandum of understanding signed by the U.S. and Iran.

• 🎧 Both countries’ haste in these talks seems to stem from a lack of trust, NPR’s Ruth Sherlock says. Iranians, in particular, are concerned that the Trump administration might go back on its commitments, especially given the history of failed talks. Iran is also furious about a separate deal brokered by the U.S. between Israel and Lebanon on a road map to end the war. Israel is still fighting the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. The Israel-Lebanon deal stipulates that Hezbollah must disarm, and it makes Israel’s withdrawal from the large areas of land it occupies contingent upon Hezbollah disarming first. Hezbollah, which was not part of the agreement, has rejected the deal outright, calling it a “surrender of Lebanese sovereignty.”