Highlights from June 6, 2025
- The Supreme Court granted an emergency application allowing DOGE staff members to have access to Social Security Administration data.
- Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man whose deportation to El Salvador became the face of a legal battle over due process rights, has been returned to the U.S. to face human smuggling charges.
- The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to allow it to carry out layoffs at the Department of Education that, combined with workers who've accepted buyouts, would reduce its workforce by about half.
- President Donald Trump said tonight that he has no plans to speak with Elon Musk as the pair continue to feud.
Earle-Sears’ record on social issues complicates bid to follow Youngkin’s path in Virginia governor’s race
Winsome Earle-Sears, the all-but-certain Republican nominee in the Virginia governor’s race this fall, has built the early stages of her campaign around being Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s partner.
Earle-Sears, the state’s lieutenant governor, has largely attempted to frame her candidacy as an extension of the current administration, an attempt to replicate the term-limited governor’s path to victory in the blue-leaning state four years ago.
“Together, we’ve fought for parents, backed the blue, and delivered real results for Virginians. Now, it’s time to keep that momentum going,” Earle-Sears, referring to Youngkin, wrote in a Facebook post earlier this year.
But there has been notable daylight between Earle-Sears and Youngkin on several fronts, particularly on social issues, complicating her strategy to follow in the footsteps of her more popular governing partner.
13 House Republicans urge Senate to scale back clean energy cuts in bill they voted for
Thirteen House Republicans who voted for Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” sent a letter today urging Senate GOP leaders to scale back some of its clean energy cuts, sparking pushback from conservative hard-liners.
The unusual criticism of their own bill indicates a modicum of regret by the GOP lawmakers, whose votes were critical to the bill passing the House by a narrow margin last month.
“While we were proud to have worked to ensure that the bill did not include a full repeal of the clean energy tax credits, we remain deeply concerned by several provisions,” said the Republicans in the letter, led by Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va.
They cited provisions that “abruptly terminate several credits just 60 days after enactment for projects that have not yet begun construction,” and “restrictions to transferability.”
Trump calls Abrego Garcia a 'bad guy' following return to U.S.
Trump said this evening that he could see the Justice Department arranging for Kilmar Abrego Garcia's return to the United States after he was mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison, saying upon his return prosecutors would "show everybody how horrible this guy is."
"I think their [the DOJ] decisions are very, very good," Trump said when asked by a reporter about Abrego Garcia's return to the United States today. "The man has a horrible past and I can see a decision being made: Bring him back, show everybody how horrible this guy is."
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced earlier today that Abrego Garcia has been returned to the U.S., and was indicted by a grand jury on two charges, including alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling.
Trump also repeated his attack on judges who have ruled against his administration on immigration policy.
"Frankly, we have to do something, because the judges are trying to take the place of a president. It’s not supposed to be the way it is," Trump said. "So I can see bringing him back. He’s a bad guy."
The Justice Department previously contended that the Trump administration lacked the ability to have Abrego Garcia released from El Salvador even as Trump told ABC News in an interview in April that he “could” have Abrego Garcia brought back to the U.S. with a single phone call.
“I’m not the one making this decision,” Trump said then. “We have lawyers that don’t want to do this.”
Supreme Court leaves in place District of Columbia’s gun restriction on large magazines
The Supreme Court today left in place a longstanding gun restriction in the District of Columbia that bans magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, opting once again to avoid taking up a new gun rights case.
The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority that generally favors gun rights, turned away a challenge to the Washington, D.C., law just a few days after rejecting an appeal over a similar law in Rhode Island.
Then, the court also left in place Maryland’s ban on assault-style weapons including the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.
The court expanded gun rights in a major 2022 ruling that found for the first time that the right to bear arms under the Constitution’s Second Amendment extends outside the home. But the court has since frustrated gun owners by declining to take up cases that would expand upon that ruling.
Five charts that show how many people President Trump’s travel ban will affect
Trump’s proclamation Wednesday restricting entry into the United States for nationals from a patchwork of 19 countries revives one of his most controversial policies from his first term and targets many of the same countries.
Beginning Monday, the directive bans entry for nationals from 12 countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. It also institutes partial bans and visa restrictions for Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
DOJ urges judge to dismiss Abrego Garcia wrongful removal case
The Justice Department is asking the judge who was presiding over Abrego Garcia's mistaken deportation action to dismiss the case in light of his return to the U.S.
"On April 4, 2025, this Court ordered Defendants to 'facilitate … the return of Plaintiff Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States[.]' Defendants hereby provide notice that they have complied with the Court’s order, and indeed have successfully facilitated Abrego Garcia’s return," the DOJ filing says.
"Considering this development, the Court’s preliminary injunction should be dissolved, and the underlying case should be dismissed as moot," it argues.
The judge presiding over the case, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, has said she was weighing contempt proceedings against the government for failing to comply with her orders.
Supreme Court allows DOGE to access Social Security data
The Supreme Court today allowed members of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency to access Social Security Administration data.
The conservative-majority court, with its three liberal justices objecting, granted an emergency application filed by the Trump administration asking the justices to lift an injunction issued by a federal judge in Maryland.
The unsigned order said that members of the DOGE team assigned to the Social Security Administration should have “access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work.”
Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a dissenting opinion questioning the need for the court to intervene on an emergency basis.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen says Abrego Garcia indictment 'has never been about the man'
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who visited El Salvador in April and met with Abrego Garcia, who is a resident of his state, commented on his return to the United States in a statement that chastised the Trump administration for defying court orders.
"For months the Trump Administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution, Today, they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States," Van Hollen said.
"As I have repeatedly said, this is not about the man, it’s about his constitutional rights — and the rights of all. The Administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along," he added.
The Supreme Court ruled in April that the Trump administration was required to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia's return to the United States.
Trump signs executive orders on flying cars, supersonic flights
The president signed three executive orders at the White House today, including one aimed at spurring production of flying cars.
That order "establishes an electric 'Vertical Takeoff and Landing' integration pilot program to accelerate the deployment of safe and lawful vertical operations in the United States, selecting at least five pilot projects to advance applications like cargo transport and medical response," a White House fact sheet on the order says.
Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, told reporters in a call that the pilot program "will lead to public-private partnerships across the country this year."
"Flying cars are not just for the Jetsons, they are also for the American people," Kratsios said.
The orders also direct the FAA to repeal a prohibition on overland supersonic flight and "other regulations that hinder supersonic flight," according to another fact sheet.
The orders also streamline regulations for drones to spur "commercial and public safety missions," and encourage their production in the U.S. The third directs the FAA to "establish a process to restrict drone flights over critical infrastructure and other public facilities," the fact sheet says.
Attorney general says Kilmar Abrego Garcia has landed back in the U.S.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said during a news conference this afternoon that Kilmar Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States after he was deported to an El Salvador prison in March.
Bondi said that a grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee had returned a two-count indictment charging Abrego Garcia with alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling.
"Upon completion of his sentence, we anticipate he will be returned to his home country of El Salvador," Bondi said.
The Trump administration had been defiant in the face of orders to facilitate Garcia's return in the months following his deportation on March 15 after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act.
