Supreme Court Set To Deliver Decision on Future of Birthright Citizenship

The Supreme Court is expected to deliver on Tuesday its four remaining opinions for the current term, including a widely anticipated ruling on President Trump’s attempt to limit birthright citizenship.Trump v. Barbara centers on an executive order Mr. Trump signed on his first day back in the White House that would deny citizenship to children born in America if their parents are in the country illegally or on short-term visas. A federal judge put the order on hold and it has never been implemented.The 14th Amendment states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” The amendment’s citizenship clause provides that a person becomes a citizen “of the United States and the state wherein they reside” if they are born in the United States and are “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”The 14th Amendment was passed in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott vs. Sandford in 1857, which held that no person enslaved in America could be considered an American citizen. A later Supreme Court decision expanded birthright citizenship to anyone born in the country. The Trump administration contends that individuals in the country illegally are not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in America, thus children born to illegal immigrants are not citizens. On April 1, Mr. Trump became the first sitting president to attend an oral argument when he watched the government present its case to the high court. A majority of justices seemed skeptical of the government position that birthright citizenship has been misinterpreted for 140 years.Mr. Trump did not express optimism the decision would go his way. “They’ll probably rule against us,” Mr. Trump said of the justices in an interview after the hearing.In addition to birthright citizenship, the court has two decisions pending that center on transgender athletes. The justices are expected to decide cases from West Virginia and Idaho on whether to uphold laws prohibiting biological males from playing on female sports teams.West Virginia v. B.P.J., challenges the state’s Save Women’s Sports Act, which allows only women and girls who were born female to participate in public school and collegiate girls’ and women’s sports. A male-born middle schooler who wished to compete on girls’ track and cross country teams, Becky Pepper-Jackson, sued claiming the law was both unconstitutional and violated Title IX rights.Little v. Hecox will decide whether laws that limit participation on teams based on sex at birth violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. In 2020, Idaho passed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which restricted participation in female sports to individuals whose biological sex at birth is female. A Boise State University student, Lindsay Hecox, sued the state, alleging a rights violation.The final case involves campaign finance. National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission contests a campaign spending law that curbs how much the political parties can spend in support of candidates for federal office. The Supreme Court upheld the limits in a 2001 decision but Republican groups asked for it to be revisited because they say the “factual backdrop” has changed since the original ruling. They framed the case as a First Amendment issue.The justices are expected to go on summer recess after Tuesday’s decisions and will return on the first Monday in October to the new term.

Supreme Court Set To Deliver Decision on Future of Birthright Citizenship

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