Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The US Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in perhaps the most controversial case this term, the one involving birthright citizenship. On the first day of a second term, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to not recognize the citizenship of babies born in the United States if neither parent is a citizen or lawful permanent resident.
The decision could impact about a quarter of a million babies born in the United States each year. It could also affect millions of others. Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Thursday, April 2nd, 2026. Joining me to break down Wednesday's arguments is USA Today Supreme Court correspondent Maureen Grappe. Welcome back, Maureen.
It's always good to have you here. It's good to be here.
Chapter 2: What executive order did President Trump sign regarding birthright citizenship?
Thanks for having me. The Birthright Citizenship case is more formally known as Trump versus Barbara. Tell me more about Barbara, please.
Barbara is a pseudonym for one of the parents who are challenging Trump's executive order on behalf of a child. This particular person, this mother, she came to the U.S. from Honduras. She is seeking asylum in the U.S. because of gang activity in Honduras. And while that application is pending, she said she and her family have become part of the community in New Hampshire.
And she is the lead name on this class action lawsuit that involves many other parents as well.
Maureen, this case has to do with the 14th Amendment, a law that was ratified more than 150 years ago. Tell me what this amendment says and what motivated its passage.
The 14th Amendment is one of three amendments that were adopted after the Civil War. And this particular one, it overturned the Supreme Court's infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision on that African Americans could not be citizens. So the citizenship clause made clear that formerly enslaved black people and their children are citizens, but the clause is not limited to the status of black people.
And in fact, it uses the words all persons when it says all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States.
Let's get to the arguments. What did the lawyers arguing against Trump's executive order say on Wednesday?
They argue that Trump's executive order violates that citizenship clause that I just read and that it also violates a previous Supreme Court decision about that clause. And they say it violates a federal citizenship law passed in the 1950s that includes similar language.
And what did the lawyers representing Trump argue?
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Chapter 3: Who is Barbara and what is her role in the birthright citizenship case?
There were some Republican members of Congress who filed briefs supporting Trump, but not as many Republicans waited on this as did Democrats in Congress.
Notably, President Trump attended the arguments on Wednesday, the first time in history that a sitting president did so. How did he react during arguments? Was his presence acknowledged by the court or the lawyers who were presenting?
My colleague, Carissa Waddock, she was there in the courtroom just to keep an eye on that very thing. And she said that the president was a quiet presence in the courtroom. She said that there were some stifled gasps when he walked in, but other than that, his attendance was barely acknowledged by lawyers or the justices in the courtroom on Wednesday.
He did not end up staying for the full two hours. He left the courtroom shortly after the justices had finished questioning the Justice Department attorney.
Based on the questions from the justices following the arguments, did you get any sense of which way they're leaning?
Yeah, so predicting how they are going to rule is always tricky and they may not know themselves and they will sit down soon to informally vote on how they want to rule on this. And then someone will start to write the opinion, which will be circulated amongst each other. And until that opinion is final, justices can change their views.
Going into this argument, there is an expectation that this would not get a very good reception at the court. None of the lower courts that have looked at this issue have sided with Trump.
But even though we heard a lot of skepticism and got a lot of tough questions for the Justice Department on Wednesday, they weren't completely dismissive of the administration's arguments, and they had some tough questions for the challengers too. So some of the key conservative justices, it did seem like that they were more likely to rule against the president.
But we won't know that until the decision comes out.
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Chapter 4: What does the 14th Amendment say about citizenship?
They could strike down the president's executive order based on similar language in a citizenship law that was passed in 1952. If they do that, if they say his law violates the law, then Congress could change the law. But that would likely lead to another legal battle that would come back to the Supreme Court and they would have to decide finally the constitutional question underlying this issue.
So could the justices decide this case in different ways, more expansively, for instance, or perhaps more narrowly? What are the possibilities here?
The court could, of course, uphold Trump's executive order and say that he's right on how he interprets the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment. But if they rule against him, they can do that in more than one way. They can say that his order, his understanding of the 14th Amendment is wrong, or they could say his executive order violates a 1952 law and therefore it's not legal.
Marina, if the Supreme Court rules in favor of Trump, when would it go into effect?
That would be up to the court. The original order was supposed to go into effect 30 days after Trump signed it, but the court could set a new effective date. So, for example, last year when they looked at the issue of whether Trump's executive order could go into effect while it was being litigated, when they issued a decision saying the lower court judges had gone too far in putting
the order on hold and they had the judges take another look at it, they kept that from going into effect for 30 days to give courts time to adjust. And in fact, within those 30 days, the lower court judges looked at it again and found a different way of putting his order on hold. So it has not gone into effect. But the point is that it's Supreme Court rules in Trump's favor.
They can also say when they think it should go into effect, how much time is needed for everyone to adjust.
And finally, when are we expecting a ruling in this case?
We would expect a ruling by the end of June or early July. The court often hands down its biggest decisions at the end of their term, which ends at the end of June or early July. And this, as you mentioned, is one of their biggest, if not their biggest cases this term. And it's also being argued a little later in the term. And so that means the justices will need time.
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