Supreme Court Seems Intent On Taking Small Steps In Dealing With Challenges To Trump's Agenda

In fewer than 500 carefully chosen and somewhat opaque words, the Supreme Court has now weighed in twice on President Donald Trump's rapid-fire efforts to remake the federal government .

The justices did not give Trump's administration what it sought. The court rejected the Republican administration's position that it had the immediate power to fire the head of a watchdog office. In the other, the court slowed the effort to block the release of up to 2 billion in foreign aid.

In the end, the short-term losses for the administration may mean little, and the court's actions arguably reflect less about whether Trump was right or wrong in either case.

Instead, they may stand for an important, but less showy, commitment to regular order from the top of a judicial system that has emerged as a key check on Trump's power with the Republican-controlled Congress largely supportive or silent.

Jack Goldsmith, a Justice Department official during President George W. Bush's administration, said there may be benefits for the court in taking small steps and delaying, which "brought the court advantage by achieving emergency outcomes it wanted without having to tip its hand prematurely on the merits of the cases."