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Supreme Contempt for the Constitution
The Supreme Court issued a shocking ruling today, making it easier for President Donald Trump to overturn birthright citizenship. The way the Court did it was in keeping with its disingenuous strategy of using technicalities that allow it to duck the underlying question.
The substance of Friday’s 6-3 decision, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, involved a challenge to Trump’s executive order denying citizenship to children born in the U.S. to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily. His order violated the 14th Amendment, which clearly holds that anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, regardless of the circumstances.
Immigrant rights groups and 22 states sued, and three different federal district court judges issued universal injunctions barring the administration from enforcing the Trump policy anywhere in the country. The Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to overturn the injunctions.
Today's ruling ducks the underlying constutional question about the meaning and reach of birthright citizenship, but bars the injuctions from taking effect nationwide and explicitly allows Trump's order to take effect in 30 days. This will only give more cover to ICE raids and deportations. Along the way, the high court overturned the ability of lower courts ever to issue injunctions with national reach.
In a dissent joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “The gamesmanship in this [Justice Department] request is apparent and the Government makes no attempt to hide it. Yet, shamefully, this Court plays along.” Justice Sotomayor added that the ruling “disregards basic principles of equity as well as the long history of injunctive relief granted to nonparties.” In a separate dissenting opinion, Justice Jackson termed the majority decision “an existential threat to the rule of law.”
The substance of Friday’s 6-3 decision, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, involved a challenge to Trump’s executive order denying citizenship to children born in the U.S. to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily. His order violated the 14th Amendment, which clearly holds that anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, regardless of the circumstances.
Immigrant rights groups and 22 states sued, and three different federal district court judges issued universal injunctions barring the administration from enforcing the Trump policy anywhere in the country. The Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to overturn the injunctions.
Today's ruling ducks the underlying constutional question about the meaning and reach of birthright citizenship, but bars the injuctions from taking effect nationwide and explicitly allows Trump's order to take effect in 30 days. This will only give more cover to ICE raids and deportations. Along the way, the high court overturned the ability of lower courts ever to issue injunctions with national reach.
In a dissent joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “The gamesmanship in this [Justice Department] request is apparent and the Government makes no attempt to hide it. Yet, shamefully, this Court plays along.” Justice Sotomayor added that the ruling “disregards basic principles of equity as well as the long history of injunctive relief granted to nonparties.” In a separate dissenting opinion, Justice Jackson termed the majority decision “an existential threat to the rule of law.”
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-06-27-supreme-court-trump-roberts-immigration-birthright-constitution/
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