Trump attending Supreme Court arguments in birthright citizenship case
President Trump visits the Supreme Court on Wednesday as the judges pass his decree seeking to end birthright citizenship, a major test of its immigration agenda.
Mr. Trump left the White House shortly after 9:30 a.m.
He is the first sitting president in modern history to personally attend proceedings before the High Court. The president does not have a designated seat in court for oral arguments, so he will likely be seated with the general public. Like all participants, he will not have access to electronic devices for several hours.
Mr. Trump has gone to the Supreme Court for arguments in the past. Last year, he told reporters he felt he had “an obligation to go” when the court took up a case reviewing the legality of his draconian global tariffs. He ultimately didn’t, writing on Truth Social that he didn’t “want to distract from the importance of this decision.”
If he attends Wednesday’s proceedings in Trump v. Barbara, it could underscore the importance of the case to the president. Hours after returning to office last year, he signed an executive order aimed at preventing U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants or people temporarily staying in the country from automatically becoming U.S. citizens.
This order has not come into effect despite numerous legal challenges. Opponents say this violates the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, which says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States.” » This clause has long been seen as granting citizenship to virtually anyone born in the United States, with few exceptions, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
But Trump administration officials have argued that the post-Civil War 14th Amendment has been misinterpreted and that the Citizenship Clause was intended to confer citizenship on former slaves and their descendants, not the children of temporary or undocumented immigrants.
The Supreme Court took up a case last year involving Mr. Trump’s birthright citizenship order, but the case did not directly address the substance of the order. focusing on the question of whether the judges’ injunctions blocking this policy was too broad. But now the High Court is ready to take the constitutionality of the executive decree. A decision could be made by July.
The Supreme Court has a solid 6-3 conservative majority, with Trump’s nominees making up a third of the court. But judges have periodically ruled against the Trump administration in recent months, drawing backlash from the president.
The court canceled many of Mr. Trump’s tariffs on foreign imports last month, leading the president to call some conservative judges a “disgrace to their families.”
Shortly after that decision, Mr. Trump predicted on Truth Social that “this Supreme Court will also find a way to come to the wrong conclusions” in the birthright citizenship case.
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