Supreme Court Enters Final Stretch With Birthright Citizenship, Ballots and Trans Sports at Stake

The Supreme Court entered the final stretch of its term this week with a docket of blockbuster cases still undecided, including President Donald Trump's bid to end birthright citizenship, fights over campaign finance and mail-in ballots, and clashes over transgender athletes that could reshape American law for years to come.

With its summer recess approaching, the court has roughly 23 decisions left to issue out of the 58 cases argued this term. The remaining rulings touch some of the most contentious questions in the country, and several are expected to land along the ideological lines of the 6-3 conservative majority. Justices typically clear their biggest cases in the closing days of June, setting up a rapid-fire series of consequential opinions.

Among the most closely watched is the administration's effort to curtail birthright citizenship, the long-standing constitutional guarantee that those born on U.S. soil are citizens. A ruling for the administration would mark a dramatic break with more than a century of precedent. The court is also weighing Watson v. Republican National Committee, a challenge by Republican leaders to a Mississippi rule allowing mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if received within five business days — a case with direct implications for how votes are tallied in November's midterms.

Transgender rights are squarely before the justices in West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, brought by two transgender athletes challenging state laws that bar them from girls' and women's sports teams in public schools. The athletes argue the bans violate Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education. The court's eventual ruling could settle a question that has roiled school districts and statehouses nationwide.

The term has already produced decisions reverberating through the 2026 election landscape. In matters touching redistricting, the court allowed Alabama to proceed with a contested congressional map, and its broader rulings on voting and representation are being scrutinized for their effect on control of Congress. Election-law experts say the combination of pending ballot, redistricting and citizenship cases makes this one of the most politically charged terms in recent memory.

As the justices race to finish, advocates on all sides are bracing for outcomes that could redraw the boundaries of citizenship, voting and civil rights. The decisions, expected over the coming days, will cap a term that has tested the court's conservative supermajority and its willingness to revisit settled constitutional ground — and will hand the country a set of rulings whose consequences extend far beyond this summer.