On the first day of Donald Trump’s second term, he promised “to immediately stop all government censorship(审查制度) and bring back free speech to America”. Twenty months on(二十个月后), federal judges have ruled against the president in more than 70 cases regarding the First Amendment(美国宪法第一修正案), which guarantees freedom of religion, speech and the press; lower courts have issued judgments on everything from campus protests to the president’s pressure on law firms. Other than a few emergency orders, however, the Supreme Court has yet to weigh in(介入表态). As the court begins its term on October 5th, that is due to change.
唐纳德·特朗普第二任期上任第一天，他承诺“立即停止一切政府审查，让言论自由回归美国”。二十个月过去，联邦法官已在70多起涉及第一修正案的案件中裁定总统败诉。第一修正案保障宗教、言论和新闻自由；下级法院的判决涵盖从校园抗议到总统向律师事务所施压等各类问题。然而，除少数紧急命令外，最高法院尚未介入。随着最高法院于10月5日开始新任期，这一局面即将改变。
The justices face a surfeit(过量) of divisive issues, including whether Arizona can require proof of citizenship from voters, whether a city can sue energy companies over climate change and whether the Second Amendment(美国宪法第二修正案) preclude(阻止)s bans on AR-15-style weapons. But cases on the First Amendment will loom particularly large in this term. Press freedom looks fairly secure. The harder questions arise when the right to free expression runs up against claims of presidential power.
大法官们面临大量分歧性议题，包括亚利桑那州能否要求选民提供公民身份证明、一座城市能否就气候变化起诉能源公司，以及第二修正案是否禁止禁止AR-15式武器。但本任期涉及第一修正案的案件将尤为突出。新闻自由看起来相当稳固。更棘手的问题出现在言论自由权与总统权力主张发生冲突之时。
The new term follows a period in which the Supreme Court has been largely friendly to Mr Trump’s pleas(请求), giving him satisfaction in more than two-thirds of 40 emergency applications. However, justices have shown willingness to cross him, too, notably in cases over the deployment of the National Guard, his sweeping tariffs, and his attempts to eliminate birthright citizenship and sack a Federal Reserve governor. In September the court rebuffed another executive order, which would have let the president commandeer mail-in voting ahead of November’s midterm elections.(9月，最高法院再次驳回一项行政命令，该命令本将允许总统在11月中期选举前接管邮寄投票。) Mr Trump fumed that the justices he had appointed were “merely a shell of their original selves(徒有其表)”.
新任期到来之前，最高法院在相当长一段时间内对特朗普的诉求大体友好，在40份紧急申请中，超过三分之二让他如愿。然而，大法官们也表现出与他相左的意愿，尤其是在国民警卫队部署、全面关税、试图取消出生公民权以及解雇美联储理事等案件中。9月，最高法院再次驳回一项行政命令，该命令本将允许总统在11月中期选举前接管邮寄投票。特朗普怒斥他任命的大法官“不过是徒有其表”。