This article was first published in the On the Hill newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox on Friday mornings here.
Hello, friends. Happy Fourth of July weekend!
I hope you are all staying safe this holiday weekend, especially as the hot weather passes through and wildfires continue to burn through parts of the western United States. Stay safe, and I hope you find something fun to do.
Out here in Washington, D.C., they are preparing for the weekend of a lifetime with major events on the National Mall, a speech from President Donald Trump, and the longest (and probably latest) fireworks show we’ve seen. Happy 250th!
— Cami Mondeaux
The Big Idea: Trump vs. Supreme Court vs. Congress
The Supreme Court finished up its 2025-26 term this week, and there were some major decisions handed down.
President Donald Trump had some major wins. For one, the court ruled that the president can fire independent regulators if they disagree on policy, massively expanding presidential authority.
The court also lifted rules that limit how much political parties can spend on campaigns and advertising when coordinating with candidates, a case brought by Vice President JD Vance when he was running for Senate. And the justices also ruled that it’s constitutional for states to ban transgender athletes from playing on girls sports teams.
But for all those wins, there were also some big losses. And Trump, as you can imagine, isn’t too happy about it.
So now he’s pulling Congress into the fight.
One of the bigger defeats for Trump was the Supreme Court ruling that upheld Mississippi’s grace period for late mail-in ballots, saying it is constitutional to count votes that arrive after Election Day if they were sent in on time.
That’s a big loss for Trump, who has spent years looking to crack down on mail-in voting, claiming it leads to fraudulent elections. His response: Congress needs to pass the SAVE America Act to secure elections instead.
Now, I know I have talked in depth about the SAVE America Act. It’s the hot topic up here on Capitol Hill where you either love it, hate it, or just want to stop talking about it altogether.
Trump renewed his calls to pass the election reform bill, which would establish proof-of-citizenship and voter ID requirements nationwide. Utah Sen. Mike Lee, the main sponsor of the bill, also amped up his calls to pass the legislation after the Supreme Court ruling.
Meanwhile, you still have Republicans in the House who are staging somewhat of a rebellion over it. They say they will kill any and all bills that don’t include the SAVE America Act, and they won’t pass anything handed over by the Senate unless they pass it.
Remember: The SAVE America Act is stuck in the Senate, and there really doesn’t seem to be a path forward right now. It needs 60 votes to end the filibuster, which it simply doesn’t have.
So Trump hoping to bring in Congress to help overcome this Supreme Court loss is a long shot. But we haven’t heard the end of it, I’m sure.
There’s another Trump versus Supreme Court versus Congress fight brewing.
The court struck down Trump’s attempts to end birthright citizenship, upholding the historic interpretation of the 14th Amendment much to the dismay of the president and some of his top allies on Capitol Hill.
So Trump once again called on Congress to get involved.
“Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “They will have my Complete and Total Support!”
Trump suggested Congress could “easily” do away with birthright citizenship with legislation, and some Republicans are already working on it. But it could be a more difficult path as it would likely need a constitutional amendment, which requires two-thirds approval from both the House and Senate as well as agreement from three-fourths of state legislatures.
Is the support there for that? Probably not, at least not with the current congressional margins.
Even if they could get something in the works, there is serious doubt Congress can pass anything that substantial with the latest heel-dragging we’ve seen.
Rep. Blake Moore put it this way to me when I asked if lawmakers could even pass such legislation: “With a couple of folks in our conference right now that choose to put themselves over advancing good policy, we can’t pass anything.”
— Cami Mondeaux
Stories Driving the Week
- House in paralysis: House Republican leaders canceled a majority of their votes this week, sending lawmakers home for the Fourth of July days early as an internal GOP argument continues to threaten the party’s agenda.
- Missing Congressman returns: Rep. Tom Kean Jr., the Republican congressman who has been missing from day-to-day duties for nearly four months, finally revealed the mysterious reason behind his absence. He said he was diagnosed with depression earlier this year and doctors recommended he stay hospitalized while he recovered.
- Housing in limbo: Speaker Mike Johnson sent the housing package to the president on Monday afternoon, less than one week after the president was initially scheduled to sign the landmark legislation into law. Trump abruptly canceled that signing ceremony just hours before, vowing not to sign any piece of legislation until the SAVE America Act is sent to his desk.
Utah lawmakers celebrate the Fourth across the country
With the holiday coming up, I wanted to take a more lighthearted tone for the second half of our newsletter this week.
So I caught up with some members of our Utah delegation to see what their favorite Fourth of July traditions are and what they will be up to this weekend.
If you haven’t seen, Sen. John Curtis is currently on his 250-mile walk commemorating the occasion. He’s been live-blogging his experience on social media, averaging about 30 miles a day.
Before he left on his trek, I asked him in the Senate basement what one does to prepare for such a journey and if he had an average pace he was working with. The 66-year-old senator had told me he had been practicing with early walks on the weekends, and that depending on the terrain he could keep up a 10-minute-per-mile pace.
My colleague Brigham Tomco got to join him for a few miles on his walk this week, which is really fun. Curtis will finish off his walk on the Fourth of July by walking into BYU’s LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo.
Other celebrations are a little more chill. Rep. Blake Moore told me that he and his sons planned to make cardboard regattas to try and float down the river.
“We’ll see how that works out,” he told me with a laugh. “I can see it failing epically.”
Sen. Mike Lee told me that he and his family love to celebrate with the classics: fireworks and a parade.
“Conversation often turns to marveling over the risks and hardship borne by our Founding Fathers, and whether we would have the grit and guts to fight for liberty as they did,” he told me in a statement. “We honor them best by fighting for liberty in our own time.”
Rep. Burgess Owens tells me his Fourth of July is always an all-day affair: starting at sunrise with his grandkids to attend a “Follow the Flag” presentation at Pleasant Grove. “It will be an experience for them and an EARLY one that will hopefully teach them that it is never too early to say thank you,” he told me.
Then he’ll go to Mount Pleasant’s dedication of its new Veterans Memorial that afternoon, an experience that he says is a reminder that “it’s never too late to say thank you.”
From there, he’ll watch a movie with his grandkids before settling in for fireworks at night.
“And in the middle of all the sparkles pausing for a minute, to give a heartfelt thanks to our Heavenly Father to be living in this country at this time celebrating a flag that still stands for freedom,” Owens said.
And of course: “The Perfect 4th will ALWAYS end with I’m so proud to be an American"
Rep. Celeste Maloy will be joining the festivities from a bit farther away. She’s here in Washington, D.C., for the America 250 celebration, noting that “we only get one semiquincentennial.”
Maloy reflected on her family’s traditions for the July Fourth holiday, telling me it’s always been a favorite of hers because it was the day her family always got together.
“We do the community breakfast and the community dinner, and the parade, and I’ve always really loved the Fourth of July,” she told me. “It’s hot and sweaty, but I love fireworks, and I love everybody getting together with a shared purpose, and so it’s always been something I really look forward to, celebrating the Fourth of July every summer.”
This year will look a little different, as she’ll be trading in the hot and dry for hot and humid. But while she’ll be enjoying the fireworks here, she says her “heart will be with my neighbors and friends in Utah who can’t do fireworks this year because of the fire restrictions.”
“I hope they find ways to celebrate America 250 and feel like they’re part of the celebrations,” she said.
But her main goal this year is just to find good food — something I think we can all relate to.
“My family always had corn dogs on the Fourth of July, so I’m gonna have to find somewhere in D.C. that I can get a decent corn dog with lots of mustard,” she said.
Happy Fourth, everyone!
— Cami Mondeaux
Quick Hits
From the Hill: Utah congressman pays tribute to 3 firefighters killed in Western wildfire. … A bipartisan group thinks it has a fix for gerrymandering. … Mike Lee renews push for election bill after Supreme Court upholds late-arriving mail ballots.
From the White House: Why Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission wants to rethink ‘separation of church and state.’ … Poll: Trump’s job approval still underwater in Utah as voters are split on success of Iran war. … How Trump made an estimated $2.2 billion since returning to office.
From the courts: Supreme Court erases limits on political party campaign spending with candidates. … Supreme Court says children born in the U.S. are citizens. … Supreme Court upholds state bans on transgender athletes in girls sports.
What’s next
The House and the Senate are both out next week. They’ll both be back on July 13.
As always, feel free to reach out to me by email with story ideas or questions you have for lawmakers. And follow me on X for breaking news and timely developments from the Hill.