The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday said the orders were another unconstitutional attempt to undo birthright citizenship after the administration’s defeat at the supreme court in June.
“The supreme court already decided this issue: birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the constitution. No additional executive order can change the meaning of the constitution,” said Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “Any executive order that tries to rewrite birthright citizenship will meet the same fate as the last one.”…
Doug Wilson's latest NPR interview has reignited debate over Christian nationalism—but what does he actually believe, and why does it matter?
This week, Brad Onishi and Dan Miller break down Wilson's comments on voting, patriarchy, the Constitution, and the future of American government. They explain why Wilson's vision isn't simply "traditional values," but a fundamentally different political philosophy that replaces individual rights with patriarchal households as the basic unit of American society.
They also connect Wilson's ideas to broader political developments, including:
Ken Paxton's latest controversies and what they reveal about evangelical political power.
The GOP's renewed push to end birthright citizenship and why the issue continues to dominate conservative politics despite recent Supreme Court rulings.
The growing mainstream acceptance of Christian Reconstructionism and why Doug Wilson has become one of the country's most influential Christian nationalist thinkers.
Tech billionaire Bryan Johnson's quest to defeat aging—and what Silicon Valley's obsession with "hacking" the human condition says about modern culture.
Throughout the episode, Brad and Dan explore how Christian nationalism, technocracy, and the pursuit of political power are reshaping American democracy, religion, and public life.
“Under current law, pregnant women can be barred from entry, and the president can do that under 212(f), again existing law,” said Ken Cuccinelli, who served as the deputy DHS secretary during Trump’s first term. “The State Department can bar those visas, and CBP can bar entry for those folks if the president chooses to do that.”…
“
You’re not going on vacation, in an emergency, in late-term pregnancy. Those are some issues we can look at,” he said. “Because at the end of the day, it is national security.”..
So instead, Trump is pushing for lawmakers to create new legislation that establish exceptions to birthright citizenship for children born to parents who do not have permanent legal status in the US.
But any legislation would need to overcome the 60-vote filibuster, which has proven to be frequently insurmountable on extremely divisive bills during his second term…
Chief Justice John Roberts suggested it was strange for the administration to seize on some narrow exceptions to the birthright citizenship rule, such as an exclusion for American Indians and for children of diplomats, in order to justify denying citizenship to millions of children of undocumented immigrants and visitors...
Some foreigners do give birth in the U.S. because they want their babies to obtain U.S. citizenship, but this amounts to a small portion of births annually, and there are policies in place to prevent that. The 14th Amendment passed after the end of slavery, a key legal provision that confers birthright citizenship. But courts have held since that the amendment applies to the children of immigrants, not just the children of enslaved people. And the U.S. is not alone in conferring birthright citizenship...
The vast majority of constitutional scholars — and the weight of legal precedent — reject his view of the issue. The Constitution's 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to "all persons born … in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof." The Supreme Court ruled in 1898 that means a child born in the U.S. to foreign parents living in California acquired U.S. citizenship at birth.
However, Eastman and the administration argue that precedent only covers children of foreigners living permanently in the U.S., and that broader interpretations over the past 128 years that it guaranteed citizenship to almost anyone born on U.S. soil were mistaken...
The goal of the heritage America movement is to roll back the clock on creedal nationalism, but its members are a bit vague — perhaps by design — about how they intend to do that. Many of them agree that the effort should start with curtailing immigration of both the illegal and legal varieties, with the end goal of restricting immigration to a handful of select countries. Most support the Trump administration's ongoing effort to end birthright citizenship. "It's not like we're going to go around to people's doors giving them DNA tests, but we recognize the fact that, on the basis of cultural similarity, people from Western Europe are going to fit in better with the American way of life than people from Haiti," said Engel. He quickly added: "That's not a racially charged statement — it's a culturally charged statement."…
Another devastating term of Trump’s Supreme Court has come to a close. There’s a lot to be angry about, so we’re joined by Dahlia Lithwick, our authority on all things SCOTUS and host of Slate’s podcast, Amicus.
Dahlia explains how this Supreme Court is using the “shadow docket” to advance bad policy without full briefings or arguments and how the results of these decisions can lead to judicial chaos.
We also discuss many of the awful decisions handed down by The Court, including those on birthright citizenship, healthcare for trans children, and religious exemptions for parents who don’t want their kids reading books that feature LGBTQ+ characters. (YIKES!)
All in all, The Court is strengthening executive authority under Trump, which is leading us towards full-blown authoritarianism.
The Supreme Court term has given the Trump administration a series of major wins in the final blockbuster week of its term.
We rounded up the final decisions in one place, with more information and links to read the full decisions and our full coverage...
Sotomayor, writing first, accused the government of engaging in "gamesmanship" that threatens the foundational rule of law…
"Today, the threat is to birthright citizenship. Tomorrow, a different administration may try to seize firearms from law-abiding citizens or prevent people of certain faiths from gathering to worship."
She closed by accusing the court of complicity in mocking the U.S. Constitution…
The Court, in other words, resolved very little. It appears that nationwide injunctions are still allowed, at least some of the time. And they might even be allowed in this very case...
