Birthright Citizenship Arguments, Trump's Mideast Trip, Sean 'Diddy' Combs Trial

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What constitutional issues surround birthright citizenship and President Trump's executive order?

A. Martinez 0:02
The Constitution guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the United States.
Steve Inskeep 0:06
President Trump tried to overturn that right and asked the Supreme Court to limit the power of judges to stop him. What are the arguments?
A. Martinez 0:13
I'm Ian Martinez, that is Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News. President Trump basked in the luxury offered by foreign governments. He also used U.S. troops as the audience for a campaign rally-style speech. What did his Mideast trip accomplish for the United States? Frank Ordonez traveled with him and has an assessment.
Steve Inskeep 0:34
Also, Sean Combs' former girlfriend testified about their 11-year relationship. Cassie Ventura described a pattern of violence and control. What's the evidence that the record executive abused his power? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.
Unidentified Speaker (Brief Interjection) 0:57
On NPR's ThruLine... Witnesses were ending up dead.
Unidentified Speaker (Brief Interjection) 1:27
How the hunt for gangster Al Capone launched the IRS to power. Find NPR's ThruLine wherever you get your podcasts. When Malcolm Gladwell presented NPR's Throughline podcast with a Peabody Award, he praised it for its historical and moral clarity. On Throughline, we take you back in time to the origins of what's in the news, like presidential power, aging, and evangelicalism. Time travel with us every week on the Throughline podcast from NPR.
Steve Inskeep 2:05
Judging by their questions in oral arguments, the Supreme Court seemed divided yesterday.

How did the Supreme Court justices respond to arguments on birthright citizenship?

A. Martinez 2:10
Yeah, they went back and forth with lawyers for more than two hours about birthright citizenship. Lower courts have found it was unconstitutional for President Trump to try and erase that constitutional right by executive order.
Steve Inskeep 2:22
NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg says the government advanced a different argument. Hi there, Nina. Hi there, Steve. So, Nina, what was the president trying to do, or his lawyers, anyway?

What was the government's legal position on limiting birthright citizenship?

Nina Totenberg 2:33
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously 127 years ago that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which was enacted after the Civil War, says unambiguously that all babies born in the United States are automatically U.S. citizens. President Trump, however, has always had his own interpretation. So on his first day in office this year, he issued an executive order declaring that the children of parents who entered the U.S. illegally or on a temporary visa are not entitled to automatic U.S. citizenship. Three different district court judges ruled that the executive order violated the Constitution. In addition, they issued temporary nationwide orders called universal injunctions that temporarily barred the enforcement of the Trump order anywhere in the country while the cases litigated in the appeals courts. The Trump administration, claiming that the judges had exceeded their authority, then went to the Supreme Court asking it to block those nationwide injunctions.
Steve Inskeep 3:31
Yeah, I guess the argument is that the ruling in a lower court should only apply to the case that's in front of them. And in fairness, some justices do not seem to have liked nationwide injunctions in the past.
Nina Totenberg 3:43
Correct. But yesterday, they didn't seem so certain, especially after Trump's Solicitor General, John Sauer, reiterated the president's view that the 14th Amendment only applies to former slaves and their children. Justice Sotomayor asked whether if a new president ordered the military to confiscate all guns in the country, would the course have to sit back and wait until every person whose gun is taken files a lawsuit? Justice Kagan then followed up asking Sauer about Trump's birthright executive order known as an EO.
Unidentified Speaker (Brief Interjection) 4:14
Let's just assume you're dead wrong. How do we get a single rule of citizenship that is not the rule that we've historically applied rather than the rule that the EO would have us do?
Nina Totenberg 4:26
Later, when Solicitor General Sauer hedged on whether the administration is committed to abiding by any court ruling, Justice Barrett leaned forward in her chair asking him whether the administration would abide by appeals court orders. Sauer responded this way. There are circumstances when it is not a categorical practice.

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