Supreme Court blocks Chicago troop deployment

Hello readers, and happy Christmas Eve to those who celebrate. Kathryn Palmer here. I hope you're reading this very relaxed, without a pile of last-minute gift wrapping hanging over your head (unlike me). On Politics will be off for the holiday tomorrow. Here's today's rundown.

Supreme Court blocks Chicago troop deployment

There will be no National Guard troops in Chicago – at least, for now. That's according to the Supreme Court, which ruled yesterday evening that Trump cannot deploy the military into the Windy City. It's a rare loss for the president in the high court, and marked the first time the justices weighed in on President Donald Trump's efforts to use the military to enforce immigration laws and fight crime in cities led by Democrats. The decision retained a lower court's hold on the use of troops, with the Supreme Court majority saying in its opinion that the administration “failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois.”

A politics roundup:

• "Not a happy Trump supporter": Ranchers are upset by the administration's push to lower beef prices
• Donald Trump's approval rating: See the year-end polls
• Video: Here are the top 3 revelations about Trump from yesterday's Epstein file drop
• Greenland's prime minister says he is "sad" over Trump’s special envoy appointment

Gallery: See photos from the new batch of Epstein files released yesterday

Trump's $100K fee on H-1B visas OK'd

A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit that opposed Trump’s $100,000 fee on visas for highly skilled foreign workers. The fee is just the latest move by the administration to tighten legal immigration standards alongside an expanding crackdown on illegal immigration. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which advocates for 300,000 businesses, and the Association of American Universities challenged the fee in the lawsuit. H-1B visas are used by people with sought-after skills, usually employed in specialty occupations, such as software engineers and IT professionals. A majority of H-1B visa holders are from India and China, and many are employed by Amazon, Microsoft and Meta.

Dem demands investigation into 1996 Epstein complaint

U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, is calling on the Justice Department to look into one of the revelations following yesterday's document dump from the Epstein files. Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, is demanding an investigation into reports that late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was first reported to the FBI in 1996 − a decade before the bureau opened an official investigation. The demand stems from a newly unveiled complaint filed by Maria Farmer, an Epstein accuser, in 1996. She said Epstein, the late financier and accused sex trafficker, stole explicit photos she took of her 12 and 16-year-old sisters and threatened to burn down her house if she told anyone.

Thanks for reading On Politics! See you next week. Reach out at [email protected] and on X @KathrynPlmr.