December Preview: SCOTUS Doubles Down on Its BS

What It Covers

The Supreme Court's December 2025 docket features cases threatening independent agencies, campaign finance limits, and immigration protections. New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin discusses First Choice Women's Resource Centers v. Platkin, an abortion-related case disguised as federal jurisdiction dispute.

Key Questions Answered

• •Crisis Pregnancy Center Standing: First Choice challenges a routine administrative subpoena from New Jersey investigating misleading medical claims on their websites. The case could allow any business receiving administrative subpoenas to immediately file federal lawsuits, potentially flooding federal courts with cases that normally resolve in state proceedings without enforcement orders.
• •Humphrey's Executor Overruling: Trump v. Slaughter directly challenges the 1935 precedent allowing Congress to protect independent agency heads from presidential removal. The court added a second question about whether federal courts can prevent wrongful termination of any federal official, potentially eliminating judicial remedies for mass firings across agencies like CFPB and Department of Education.
• •Campaign Finance Coordination Limits: National Republican Senatorial Committee v. FEC challenges anti-coordination rules preventing parties from circumventing individual contribution limits of $3,300 per candidate. Eliminating these limits could allow unlimited money flowing from individuals through parties to candidates, with potential expansion to independent expenditure committees enabling tens of millions in individual candidate donations.
• •Immigration Asylum Review: Yurius Arellano v. Bondi tests whether courts must defer to Board of Immigration Appeals determinations that undisputed facts don't constitute persecution. The case examines Loper Bright's boundaries after Chevron's overruling, determining when Congress permissibly delegates discretion to agencies versus requiring independent judicial review of legal interpretations.
• •Eastern District Virginia Dismissals: Federal Judge Cameron McGowan Curry dismissed indictments against Jim Comey and Letitia James because prosecutor Lindsey Halligan, a former White House aide with no prosecutorial experience, was unlawfully appointed. The court rejected Attorney General Bondi's attempt to retroactively ratify the appointment, noting government cannot send any private citizen into grand jury rooms.