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What are the key issues in the Supreme Court's birthright citizenship case?
Good morning. It's Friday, May 16th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, what's in the GOP's big tax bill, the EPA's regulatory rollback on forever chemicals in drinking water, and the world's first patient treated with personalized gene editing therapy. But first, the Supreme Court seems torn over what to do with the birthright citizenship case. As we mentioned yesterday, the constitutionality of Trump's order calling to end birthright citizenship is not what the court is being asked to consider. Rather, justices yesterday were asked to weigh the limits of judicial power. and whether a lower court is allowed to block an executive order like this one from being enforced nationwide.
The Trump administration has asked the court to scale back the nationwide injunctions against his order so they can apply to only those who are pregnant, immigrant advocacy groups, and residents of the 22 states that challenged his order in the courts. Here's Solicitor General D. John Sauer arguing on behalf of the administration.
How is the Trump administration challenging nationwide injunctions?
Respectfully, I think what we have are lower courts making snap judgments on the merits that ignore the fundamental principle of the 14th Amendment, that it was about giving citizenship to the children of slaves, not to the children of illegal immigrants.
For more than a century, most scholars and courts have agreed that the 14th Amendment is not exclusively about slavery and that it plainly states intent that every child born within the territory of the United States is a citizen. The defendants, meanwhile, argued that restricting the scope of injunctions would go against the Constitution and previous court rulings. New Jersey Solicitor General Jeremy Feigenbaum said the Trump administration's request to let the injunction stand in some places, but not others for now, would lead to chaos.
Since the 14th Amendment, our country has never allowed American citizenship to vary based on the state in which someone resides. Because the post-Civil War nation wrote into our Constitution that citizens of the United States and of the states would be one and the same without variation across state lines.
This isn't the first time justices have been asked to weigh in on nationwide injunctions, and justices have expressed dismay in the past. Yesterday, Justice Clarence Thomas seemed to focus on the history of nationwide injunctions, suggesting at one point the United States had, quote, survived until the 1960s without using them. From the liberal wing, Justice Elena Kagan acknowledged that critics of both the Biden and Trump administrations had used friendly jurisdictions to their advantage. But she asked Sauer how else states could tackle executive orders they perceived to be blatantly unconstitutional. And Justice Katonji Brown Jackson questioned the fairness of the Trump administration, pushing ahead, denying citizenship documents regardless, knowing only those with the means could successfully challenge in courts.
What arguments are being made by the justices and advocates?
The real concern, I think, is that your argument seems to turn our justice system, in my view at least, into a catch-me-if-you-can kind of regime from the standpoint of the executive, where everybody has to have a lawyer and file a lawsuit in order for the government to stop violating people's rights.
As for how they might weigh in on a future, more direct question of birthright citizenship, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Trump was violating four established Supreme Court precedents. And the conservatives on the court raised issues, too. Justice Neil Gorsuch referred to a patchwork of problems with enforcing the executive order in some states and not others. And Justice Brett Kavanaugh had a testy exchange with Sauer on the practicalities.
With a newborn, what do states do with a newborn?
I don't think they do anything different. What the executive order says in section two is that federal officials do not accept documents that have the wrong designation of citizenship from people who are subject to the executive order. How are they going to know that? The states can continue to, the federal officials will have to figure that out. How?
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What are the key issues in the Supreme Court's birthright citizenship case?
0:05–1:19
2
How is the Trump administration challenging nationwide injunctions?
1:19–3:11
3
What arguments are being made by the justices and advocates?
3:11–5:27
4
What are the expected outcomes of the Supreme Court case?
5:27–7:26
5
What is included in the GOP's proposed tax bill?
7:26–9:15
6
How might the GOP tax bill impact different income brackets?
9:15–13:28
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