Good morning. In this edition:

• ⚖️ Trump’s agenda vs. the Supreme Court
• 🍿 Movie theaters are still struggling
• 📉 Consumer confidence hits a 12-year low

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.84-minute read (1,287 words).

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“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”

–Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

The Justice Department is currently fast-tracking many of its ongoing legal fights over the White House’s efforts to push the bounds of executive power, setting up Supreme Court showdowns over a wide range of Trump’s policies in the near future.

Major cases on the docket

• Firing gov’t workers: The DOJ filed an emergency application this week asking SCOTUS to allow federal agencies to resume mass firings of probationary employees, after a federal judge ordered ~16,000 such workers reinstated.
• Eliminating birthright citizenship: The Trump admin has asked the Supreme Court to narrow rulings by three lower court judges that block the President’s executive order voiding birthright citizenship, so the administration can begin putting into effect its new policy.
• Wartime deportation powers: An appeals court heard arguments this week in a case over Trump’s use of wartime powers to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members, which White House officials have vowed to take to the Supreme Court.
• Refusing refugees: An appeals court yesterday overturned a federal judge’s ruling that had prevented the White House from suspending entry of new refugees as a lawsuit plays out over Trump’s executive order halting US refugee admissions.
• Firing agency heads: The DOJ has signaled plans to ask SCOTUS to reverse a decades-old precedent limiting the President’s power to remove independent agency heads.

One thing to note: The cases fast-tracked to the Supreme Court only involve requests for temporary halts—or stays—of lower court orders, not rulings on the underlying arguments. But these “stay fights” often signal how courts will rule on the merits in the future.

Looking ahead…The Trump admin’s legal battles that have already made it to SCOTUS on an emergency basis will receive rulings in the coming days or weeks. The other cases are expected to reach the Court over the next few weeks or months.

📊 Flash poll: In general, do you want to see Trump administration policies that have reached the Supreme Court be upheld or overturned?

• Upheld
• Overturned
• It depends on the policy
• Unsure/other

Would you rather have bought Amazon shares for $106.70 in December 1999, or for $5.97 in September 2001?

• Lately, stocks that soared at the beginning of the pandemic have seemingly crashed down to earth. 
• Many sold off due to poor results, others got caught up in a flood of fear while underlying performance improved. Like one company that’s at a 60% pullback from the all-time high, despite net revenue being up 23% YoY.

In a special report, The Motley Fool details this stock and two others whose prices tanked due to recent market sentiment—but have underlying fundamentals and growth catalysts for future success.

What’s private is becoming public, in a bit of news unrelated to leaked Signal group chats.

EquityZen and Forge Global, marketplaces for trading shares of privately held companies, yesterday announced a partnership with Yahoo Finance that will see the pair share data on ~100 pre-IPO companies––including SpaceX, Stripe, OpenAI, Liquid Death, Attentive, and Figma––with the website. The marketplaces also lowered their minimum investment threshold to invest in those companies from tens of thousands of dollars to $5,000.

Bridging the gap

Employees and early investors in startups often want to cash out their shares, but can’t sell them on an open market. And startups are staying private longer––the average company goes public today at 10.7 years old, compared with 6.9 years in 2015.

On the flip side, individual investors often miss out on VC-like returns, since earlier-stage investments often require six-or-seven-figure minimum investments and multi-year lockups.

• EquityZen and Forge Global act as facilitators between these two parties, compiling bid-ask data to provide up-to-date valuations and taking 2%–5% of each transaction.

There is some fine print. Anyone participating in a private-market deal must be an accredited investor, per SEC requirements. This means having a net worth of $1+ million (excluding a primary residence) or making $200,000 annually ($300,000 for couples). Roughly one in five US households qualify.

Proceed with caution…Private-equity investments underperformed public markets last year for the third time in four years, according to McKinsey.

Like the March Madness motto: “survive and advance,” movie theaters during Covid and the pandemic-era strikes were leaning on the phrase: “survive till ’25.”

But…As of Sunday, movie theaters have generated ~$1.34 billion at the domestic box office so far in 2025, down 7% from the same period in 2024, according to Comscore data (and 2024 was down 23.5% compared to 2019). March has been especially tough; revenues are expected to be 50% lower YOY.

Lower quality, higher prices

A big contributor to falling cinema sales stems from basic supply and demand, per analysts. Put simply: there are just fewer quality movies being supplied to theaters.

• Mid-budget category films, in particular––films that typically make between $50 million and $100 million at the domestic box office––saw a 40% decline in supply between 2004 and 2019. Most romcoms, dramas, and lighthearted comedies fall into this category.
• The only genre to see an increase in supply and total gross is horror, generating ~$54 million at the box office between January and February 2025––a 2% increase from the same period last year.

At the same time: Movie nights are getting more expensive. The average price of a movie ticket has increased by more than 68% over the past 21 years.

Looking ahead…Any hope of a revenge-arc-style industry comeback lies with still-yet-to-be-released tentpoles. Tom Cruise’s fifty-first eighth Mission Impossible, Wicked 2, and Avatar: Fire and Ash are all slated to debut later this year.

For the ultra-sensitive, the textures of clothing can feel unbearable. Recognizing this, NoNetz innovated clothing with no cling, itch, or discomfort while managing body temp. The result? Stylish, inclusive, and comfortable fashion for all.

• Available in multiple styles and trending colors, NoNetz joggers have no itchy seams, use anti-sweat, breathable materials, and feature a cozy 4-way stretch that fits just right.
• 3D-knit on demand in NYC with plant-based EcoViscose that’s soft on you and the planet.

When it comes to confidence, American consumers right now are feeling more George McFly than Biff Tannen.

The Conference Board’s monthly index measuring consumer confidence in future economic conditions fell ~13% to reach 65.2, per new data published yesterday. It marks the index’s lowest reading since 2013, and well below the 80 level that economists consider a signal for an upcoming recession.

• The Conference Board says the latest fall in economic confidence can be seen across all income groups, and is mainly driven by Americans aged 55+.

Big picture: Since consumer spending is by far the biggest contributor to the US economy––comprising 65%-70% of US GDP––it’s seen as a somewhat reliable indicator of economic health. And business leaders seem to agree with the Conference Board’s pessimistic outlook: CNBC’s quarterly survey of company CFOs found a majority believe the US economy will enter a recession in the second half of 2025.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🫖 Chagee, a Chinese bubble tea chain, filed for US IPO. | 🪙 GameStop will invest corporate cash in bitcoin, similar to Micro Strategy.
• 🤝 Affirm reached an agreement with JPMorgan Chase to offer its buy now, pay later loan services to merchants on the bank’s payments network; deal follows a similar announcement from rival Klarna last month. | 🙏 Han Jong-Hee, co-CEO of Samsung, died at 63 from a heart attack.
• 📉 Tesla sales fell 47% last month in the EU; follows a 50% drop in January and comes as EV registrations in the bloc increased. | 📈 BYD, the Chinese EV giant, reported ~$107 billion in revenue in 2024; figure surpasses the ~$98 billion generated by Tesla last year.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with Live It Up

• 🎭 Good Night, and Good Luck, a new play starring George Clooney, grossed $3.3 million last week; it’s the highest weekly figure ever for a non-musical play on Broadway. | 🕶️ Amy Pascal and David Heyman were tapped to produce the newest James Bond movie for Amazon MGM Studios.
• 🏀 USC star JuJu Watkins—the presumptive National Player of the Year—tore her ACL and is out for the rest of women’s March Madness.
• 🎶 Napster, the pioneering music piracy site founded by Justin Timberlake Sean Parker, was acquired for $207 million by 3D technology company Infinite Reality.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🦠🐑 UK health officials identified the world's first known case of bird flu in sheep; experts say the current risk to humans is low.
• 🤖 OpenAI announced a reshuffling of its executive team as CEO Sam Altman shifts more of his focus to the technical side. | ✍️ Read the AI-created poem from ChatGPT’s new creative writing model; Altman called it the first time he’s been “really struck” by AI writing.
• 🧑‍💻 Microsoft unveiled six new AI agents designed to autonomously assist overwhelmed cybersecurity teams.

MISCELLANEOUS

in partnership with Dyce Games

• 📫 US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy resigned after nearly five years in the role.
• 🇺🇸🇷🇺🇺🇦 US officials said Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a ceasefire in the Black Sea and to work out mechanisms for ending attacks on energy facilities; the deal also involves the US lifting some sanctions on Russia.
• 🗳️ President Trump signed an executive order to make sweeping changes to federal elections; it includes proof of citizenship requirements to vote, and a clause aiming to prevent states from counting mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

*From our partners: 🍻 800+ hilarious reasons to drink…Another laugh-out-loud party game from Dyce Games, “Drink If…” lets you and your friends learn things you may or may not want to know about each other. Save 17% on “Drink If…” for a limited time here.

👆 The longest fully-preserved dinosaur claw was unearthed in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert; it belongs to a previously unknown ~10-foot-tall species named Duonychus tsogtbaatari.

🤔 Did You Know? Michael Keaton is only on-screen for 17 minutes out of the 92-minute film Beetlejuice (1988), despite playing the titular character. He also reprised his 17-minute role in Beetlejuice 2 (2024).

📰 Worth a Read: Has the Decline of Knowledge Work Begun?

🖱️ Clickbait: A collection of Star Wars-inspired bugs

❤️ Six months ago, a Goodwill truck with “Another Way” painted on the side pulled up near Tevin Clark, a homeless man who had recently lost everything. Read how one meal, $50, and four hours of work offered by Goodwill changed his life.

📸 The 2025 British Wildlife Photography Awards winners are out. The goal of the awards is to “showcase the extraordinary beauty and diversity of Britain’s natural world." See all the finalists here.

✈️ An Australian father/son duo broke the world record for most consecutive inside loops in a glider, taking to the skies for 45 loops—nearly twice the previous record of 24.

🌎 Visual learning: Explore this interactive time-lapse of Earth's continents and supercontinents over the past 2 billion years.

📺 Back in my day: Explore what watching TV was like over the years.

🛗 Press this button: And take a virtual elevator up to space.

✨ Find inspiration: Join 2.7k+ innovators in a niche online hub for curated Notion tips, community vibes, and design/profuntivity inspo. Get inspired—subscribe now.*

📈 Di$cover: Simplify the stock market and make smarter investment decisions in just 4 minutes a week. Subscribe to Simplify Wall Street today.*

*A message from our partners

Can you name these poorly-explained movie plots?

1. Guys sleeps with all his employees
2. Man adopts three children so he can sell cookies
3. Driver wrecks Ford

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1. Inception (2010)
2. Despicable Me (2010)
3. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)