The Supreme Court will hold oral arguments this morning regarding the Birthright Citizenship case, Trump v. Barbara. The arguments start at 10 a.m. Eastern.
The case challenges the president’s authority to place restrictions on birthright citizenship. Here is the Question Presented on which the court agreed to take the case:
The Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides that those “born * * * in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” are U.S. citizens. U.S. Const. Amend. XIV, § 1. The Clause was adopted to confer citizenship on the newly freed slaves and their children, not on the children of aliens temporarily visiting the United States or of illegal aliens. On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order No. 14,160, Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship, which restores the original meaning of the Citizenship Clause and provides, on a prospective basis only, that children of temporary visitors and illegal aliens are not U.S. citizens by birth. The Citizenship Order directs federal agencies not to issue or accept citizenship documents for such children born more than 30 days after the Order’s effective date.The question presented is whether the Executive Order complies on its face with the Citizenship Clause and with 8 U.S.C. 1401(a), which codifies that Clause.
The full court docket is here.
We will post reactions and some commentary here.
POST-ARGUMENT QUICK TAKE:
The argument is over, and I don’t see any clear signal from the Justices which way this will go. Sotomayor and KBJ are clearly against the government position, but the others — even Kagan — were harder to read. One thing I can say to a certainty, is that this was not the frivolous issue portrayed in the mainstream media The Justice seem torn as to a somewhat unclear historical and case law record. What didn’t get a lot of attention, and I think may be significant, is that the Executive Order at issue only turns on current legal status, not esoteric arguments as to domicile:
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY