Supreme Court Hands Trump Victory on Birthright Citizenship, Weighs in on LGBTQ+ Rights

Strategic Insights -

The US Supreme Court has handed President Trump a major victory by allowing the administration to take steps aimed at implementing its ban on automatic citizenship for all babies born in the U.S. The 6-3 decision, with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett writing for the court, makes it far more difficult to bring a nationwide challenge to other executive orders issued by President Trump or any future president. At the same time, the court's decision upholds provisions of the Affordable Care Act, the FCC's fund for rural internet access, and a Texas law requiring proof of age for online access to sexually explicit material.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Supreme Court's decision on birthright citizenship took no position on birthright citizenship at all, but rather granted the administration's request to curb the ability of lower court judges to apply their rulings nationwide.
  • The decision makes it far more difficult for plaintiffs to bring a nationwide challenge to other executive orders issued by President Trump or any future president.
  • Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the conservative court, stating that universal injunctions that apply a ruling nationwide were not anticipated by the nation's founders and have not been authorized by Congress.
  • Writing for the three liberal dissenters, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that the president's executive power does not permit him to rewrite the Constitution or statutory provisions at a whim.
  • The court's decision left loopholes for plaintiffs to use in challenging not just Trump's birthright citizenship policy, but other policies, including the ability of states to seek universal injunctions and citizens to bring class actions on behalf of themselves and others in similar situations.
  • Immigrant rights groups almost immediately filed a nationwide class action lawsuit challenging the Trump executive order barring birthright citizenship for certain classes of babies born in the U.S.
  • The court's decision punted to next term an important voting rights case from Louisiana and upheld a provision of the Affordable Care Act, as well as the FCC's fund for rural internet access.
  • The court agreed with the objecting parents in a 6-3 vote regarding a major religion decision about the rights of parents to opt their children out of classes in which material like school books with LGBTQ characters violate their religious beliefs.

Statistics:

  • 6-3 is the vote margin in the Supreme Court's decision on birthright citizenship.
  • 160,000 is the number of students in the most religiously diverse county in the nation, Montgomery County, Maryland.
  • 14th Amendment is the provision of the Constitution that explicitly states that all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States.

Sources:

  • Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington
  • Stephen Vladeck, Georgetown law professor
  • William Baude, University of Chicago law professor
  • Thomas Berg, University of St. Thomas Law School in Minnesota
  • Sonja Trainor, executive director of the National School Attorneys Association