The year 2024 was filled with consequential Supreme Court decisions, and 2025 is shaping up to be another pivotal chapter as the justices prepare to address contentious issues ranging from gun regulation and gender-affirming care to disability rights and free speech.
As of mid-December, the court has agreed to hear more than 50 cases this term, which ends in summer 2025.
Last term saw historic rulings expanding presidential immunity, limiting federal regulatory authority, curbing prosecutorial discretion while at the same time punting on lingering abortion questions. Two of the most-watched cases involved former President Donald Trump: The conservative supermajority ruled in July he is entitled to some immunity from prosecution and in another case determined that federal prosecutors handling the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol improperly charged some defendants – possibly including Trump himself.
In three weeks, Donald Trump will move back into the White House and return to a city where his fellow Republicans will be in complete control of Congress.
The GOP promised voters a unified government that could move quickly on Trump’s top priorities – limiting immigration, cutting taxes and taking on America’s major trading partners with the threat of increased tariffs on the goods they sell to U.S. consumers. There was also a promise to lower prices Americans pay for their necessities, chief among them groceries.
Trump has already backed off the last promise. But the past two weeks have also shown that while unified on their victory, the disparate interests of the coalition Trump built to win the presidency could prove a major obstacle to some of his main economic agenda items.
“Politics (and to a significant extent economics as well) is largely about trade-offs – when two opposing forces meet and pressure increases, trade-offs need to be made,” William Blair macro analyst Richard de Chazal wrote early Monday morning. “What we are seeing today in the buildup to President-elect Trump’s new term in office is no exception: sure-sounding promises made on the campaign trail are already being met with the reality of both politics and economics, and the trade-offs are beginning.”
“The fact that President-elect Trump’s policy platform is riddled with inconsistencies only increases the likely areas of tension and forced compromise,” de Chazal added.
When choosing a new place to settle, the cost of living is a major consideration. It's no surprise that a survey of more than 3,000 U.S. residents on the importance of various factors in determining where to live reflected rising consumer concerns about housing affordability and increased cost of goods and services. U.S. News weighted its value at 27% – making it one of the key metrics used to calculate the Best Places to Live ranking.
To pinpoint the most affordable places on the list, we looked at the proportion of the median annual household income that goes toward the average cost to own or rent a home, including the typical cost of utilities and taxes, as well as price parity, which compares the cost of goods and services across the country. Here are the Best Affordable Places to Live in the U.S.
