Summary: Trump attends Supreme Court arguments on birthright citizenship Supreme Court ruled against Trump on global tariffs case Three Trump appointees form conservative super-majority President Donald Trump was set to make a historic visit to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, attending arguments over the legality of a policy he considers crucial to his hardline approach toward immigration - a directive he signed on his first day back in office that would limit birthright citizenship. Outside the neoclassical courthouse on Capitol Hill, demonstrators gathered ahead of the arguments, some holding anti-Trump signs including ones reading "Trump must go now." The court has backed Trump in a series of rulings issued on an emergency basis since he returned to the presidency last year. Those decisions came on matters including immigration, mass federal layoffs, cutting foreign aid, dismantling the Education Department, banning transgender people from the military and other areas. But the court on February 20 ruled against Trump in a major case testing the legality of the sweeping global tariffs he imposed last year under a law meant for use in national emergencies. Since the tariffs ruling, Trump has lashed out repeatedly at the Supreme Court and the six justices who ruled against him in that case. The court said it is not aware of a president attending arguments in modern times, meaning since its current building opened in 1935. There are examples of 19th century presidents arguing cases before the court - though not while in office - including John Quincy Adams, Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison. The Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump during his first term in office - Neil Gorsuch in 2017, Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 and Amy Coney Barrett in 2020. Barrett's appointment gave the court its current conservative super-majority and ushered in an epoch in which the court has moved American law dramatically to the right including rulings rolling back abortion rights, rejecting race-conscious collegiate admissions policies, limiting the power of U.S. regulatory agencies and more. Trump and senior officials in his administration often have denounced judges who have issued rulings against his policies, sometimes in highly personal terms. Three of the court's six conservative justices - Chief Justice John Roberts as well as Gorsuch and Barrett - joined with the court's three liberal members in ruling that Trump had overstepped his authority in imposing tariffs. Trump was incensed at Gorsuch and Barrett in particular, calling them on the day of that ruling "an embarrassment to their families." And last week, Trump kept up his condemnation of his two appointees, saying that "they sicken me because they're bad for our country." Trump after the tariffs ruling said he was "ashamed" of the three conservative justices who ruled against him, calling them "fools and lapdogs for the RINOs and the radical-left Democrats." RINO, meaning "Republican in name only," is a term sometimes used by conservative Republicans to insult fellow Republicans viewed as disloyal to the party. Trump after the ruling also claimed that the court "has been swayed by foreign interests," but declined to provide any evidence. A lower court blocked Trump's executive order directing U.S. agencies not to recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States if neither parent is an American citizen or legal permanent resident, also called a "green card" holder. Trump's administration has said that granting citizenship to virtually anyone born on U.S. soil has created incentives for illegal immigration and led to "birth tourism," by which foreigners travel to the United States to give birth and secure citizenship for their children. Trump wrote on social media last year: "Birthright Citizenship was not meant for people taking vacations to become permanent Citizens of the United States of America, and bringing their families with them, all the time laughing at the 'SUCKERS' that we are!" Trump added: "But the drug cartels love it! We are, for the sake of being politically correct, a STUPID Country but, in actuality, this is the exact opposite of being politically correct, and it is yet another point that leads to the dysfunction of America." (Reporting by Andrew Chung, John Kruzel, Jan Wolfe and Blake Brittain; Editing by Will Dunham)

Summary: Endangered Species Committee votes unanimously for exemption Exemption requested by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Rice's whale population threatened by oil and gas activities A federal panel, convened for the first time in more than three decades, voted unanimously on March 31 to exempt oil and gas drillers in the Gulf of Mexico from a law meant to protect endangered species including whales, birds and sea turtles. The meeting of the Endangered Species Committee, nicknamed the "God Squad" because of its power to grant exemptions to the Nixon-era Endangered Species Act, is the latest effort by the Trump administration to unwind regulations it says hold back domestic energy production. The six members of the committee — Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Neil Jacobs, and Acting Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Pierre Yared — said they were obligated to vote for the exemption because it had been requested by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Burgum, the committee's chairman, invoked the global oil disruption from the war in Iran in linking the issue with the need for domestic energy supplies to support military operations and readiness. "Current events have shown the impact of what can happen when major energy sources are taken offline," he said. Hegseth, who was seated next to Burgum at the livestreamed meeting, said he asked for the exemption because pending lawsuits threatened to stop oil and gas activities in the Gulf. "We cannot allow our own rules to weaken our standing and strengthen those who wish to harm us," Hegseth said. "So for these reasons, exemption from the Endangered Species Act in the Gulf is not just a good idea, it is a critical matter of national security." The ESA allows for exemptions if the defense secretary finds it is needed for national security reasons, a provision that has never been tested. The endangered Rice's whale has been the subject of litigation over oil and gas exploration in the Gulf in recent years. A federal environmental analysis last year found that vessel strikes related to oil and gas drilling are likely to threaten the whales’ existence. Rice's whales are one of the rarest whale species in the world, according to NOAA, with fewer than 100 remaining. "This amoral action by Pete Hegseth and Trump's cronies is as horrific as it is illegal, and we'll overturn it in court," Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an emailed statement. An oil and gas industry group said Gulf activities remained subject to environmental protections under a range of other federal laws, including the Marine Mammal Protection Act and National Environmental Policy Act. "Today's decision reflects that these robust protections are in place, and that serial litigation from activist groups targeting a lawful, well-regulated industry should not be allowed to indefinitely obstruct projects of clear national importance," Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, said in an emailed statement.

Summary: President Donald Trump unveiled architectural drawings of a $400 million, 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom. Trump said the ballroom acts as a shelter for a massive secret military complex being built underneath. The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit challenging the ballroom's construction without required approvals. Trump described the ballroom as privately funded and designed to seat 1,000 people with bulletproof and drone-proof features. President Donald Trump says an important part of the $400 million ballroom he is building for the White House is a "massive military complex" underneath it that was supposed to remain secret. Trump’s explanation came as he unveiled architectural drawings of the 90,000-square-foot ballroom, which critics have said is out of scale to the rest of the building. The National Trust for Historic Preservation is fighting the ballroom in federal court, which is where details about the military aspect of the project were revealed. “Now the military is building a big complex under the ballroom, which has come out recently because of a stupid lawsuit that was filed, but the military's building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that's under construction and we're doing very well,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on March 29. A bunker was installed beneath the East Wing during President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration to protect the chief executive. The Presidential Emergency Operations Center was created and updated over the years to protect the president from attacks, including potentially a nuclear war. Trump has already bulldozed the East Wing, which had been built in 1902 during President Theodore Roosevelt’s administration and expanded in 1942 during Franklin Roosevelt’s administration. Trump argued the White House has needed a ballroom for 150 years because the largest room, the East Room, holds only 125 people for formal dinners. Larger events were held in tents on the South Lawn, where Trump said soggy ground often left foreign leaders with wet feet. Trump has promoted the new ballroom, which is being privately funded, for seating 1,000 people. He showed drawings to reporters of the ballroom flanked by Corinthian columns and featuring bulletproof and drone-proof windows. “I think it'll be the finest ballroom of its kind anywhere in the world,” Trump said. The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit against the ballroom for allegedly building without required approvals or congressional authorization. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon held a hearing on March 17 as he considers whether to block the project temporarily. Trump raised the military aspect of the project during a Cabinet meeting on March 26. “I mean, now it's no secret, the military wanted it more than anybody,” Trump said. “It was supposed to be secret, but it became secret because of people that are really unpatriotic saying things, but doesn't matter, doesn't matter. It's going to be great.” Aboard Air Force One, Trump characterized the ballroom as a shelter for the military component. “The ballroom essentially becomes a shed for what's being built under the military, including from drones and including from any other thing,” Trump said. This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: “Trump defends White House ballroom as 'shed' for secret complex” Reporting by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY Network / The Detroit News USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect