Last Month at the Supreme Court | January 2026

Happy New Year from Dykema’s Appellate and Critical Motions Practice team! Last Month at the Supreme Court^® is kicking off the new year with a bang by diving into Trump v. Slaughter, the case examining whether the President may remove a member of an independent, multi-member agency, who is “at odds” with the President’s policies.

The January edition also features Grant Alerts highlighting several compelling issues now before the Court:

• The limits of birthright citizenship, as the Court reviews a challenge to an executive order with potentially far-reaching consequences for constitutional rights and executive authority;
• Whether federal law preempts state-law negligence claims against freight brokers, an issue that could directly affect liability allocation across shipping and logistics industries;
• Federal court jurisdiction when adjudicating arbitration awards, as the Court considers what jurisdictional showing is required when parties seek to confirm or vacate an arbitration award under the Federal Arbitration Act; and
• Whether the Rooker-Feldman doctrine (the basic principle that if you lose a case in state court, you can’t just go to a lower federal court and ask to reverse the ruling, as that would transform the lower federal courts into appellate courts for state rulings) should be limited to judgments issued by a state’s highest court—a question that could significantly affect the scope of federal subject matter jurisdiction over cases challenging state-court proceedings

It’ll take just a few minutes to read—or listen to—our short summaries for helpful insights into how these cases may influence future litigation, regulation, administrative enforcement, business decisions, and strategic decision-making across industries.

For more information, please contact Chantel Febus, James Azadian, Kyle Asher, Mark Magyar, Andrew VanEgmond, Monika Harris, Ryan VanOver, David Ter-Petrosyan, or Sadie Betting.

Supreme Court To Determine Whether the President Can Remove Members of Multi-Member Federal Agencies

On December 8, 2025, the Justices heard oral argument in Trump v. Slaughter (No. 25-332). The Supreme Court plans to decide (1) whether the statutory removal protections for independent, multi-member federal agencies violate the separation of powers (and, if so, whether the Supreme Court should sack its 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States) and (2) whether the judiciary has the power to prevent one’s removal from public office.

Read the full synopsis here.  

Grant Alerts

Notable Business Cases the Court Granted Last Month.

Read the full list here.