SCOTUS Just Barely Preserves Birthright Citizenship

**Leah Litman** (0:00)
Strict Scrutiny is brought to you by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The Trump administration's excessive Christian nationalist rhetoric is only building as we move toward the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Those most caught in the crossfire are federal workers specifically, a multi-faith group of federal employees filed a new lawsuit against the United States Department of Agriculture for violating the separation of church and state and their religious freedom promised in our constitution. Our friends at Americans United for Separation of Church and State received emails from multiple USDA employees. A handful of employees reached out saying, the proselytizing Easter email sent by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rawlins to more than 100,000 USDA employees is an abusive power that violates the separation of church and state promised in the First Amendment.
They are absolutely right. Con law, it doesn't have to be that hard. I mean, Constitution just straight up says, shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. Seriously, what is with these guys in erasing the first sentence of constitutional provisions? That's what birthrights' citizenship is about too. Anyways, the hits keep on coming from this administration, and Americans United is doing their best to keep up the fight against Christian nationalism. If you want to help, head to au.org/crooked to learn more about their work and how you can get involved.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:19)
Mr. Chief Justice, may I please report? It's an old joke, but when an argument man argues against two beautiful ladies like this, they're going to have the last word.
She spoke not elegantly, but with unmistakable clarity. She said, I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.

**Leah Litman** (2:02)
This is another emergency episode of Strict Scrutiny, your podcast about the emergency that is the Supreme Court that came within one vote of rescinding the Constitution and our entire post-Civil War constitutional order. With that intro, we're your hosts. I'm Leah Litman.

**Kate Shaw** (2:15)
I'm Kate Shaw.

**Melissa Murray** (2:16)
And I'm Melissa Murray. And let's start off with a top line overview. So this morning, the Supreme Court held five to four that the United States Constitution exists. I wrote a whole book about it, so can confirm. Well, at least the Constitution exists sometimes because this decision means that five people, five fucking people on the Supreme Court decided that the proposition that the Constitution says what it says is actually meaningful. That's it. Just five people. Five to four, we are literally doing constitutional law by a single vote, and we're doing it on literally the most straightforward constitutional question ever.

**Leah Litman** (2:57)
Recall back in January 2025, when one of the first district judges, I'm probably going to say his name incorrectly, I think it's Judge Kuhnauer, Reagan appointee out in Washington, had this to say about the president's birthright order, rescinding birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and the children of immigrants who are here on temporary statuses, quote, where were the lawyers when this decision was being made? I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar could state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It just boggles my mind.
Where are the lawyers on the Supreme Court?

**Kate Shaw** (3:32)
That's where some of those lawyers were. In fact, on the United States Supreme Court. And if we sound really alarmed, this is incredibly alarming. It honestly I don't think is an overstatement to say the system is hanging by a thread, a wisp. Donald Trump came within a single vote of getting the Supreme Court to say that the 14th Amendment does not in fact guarantee birthright citizenship.
It came within a single vote of adopting a completely off-the-wall theory of citizenship that a few years ago, three years ago, five years ago was understood to be the province, exclusive province of right-wing cranks and kooks.
A theory that says that some people born in the United States are not citizens, even though the Constitution clearly says that all persons born in the United States are citizens.

**Melissa Murray** (4:20)
This is all to say, listeners, that we know that there are those in the media who are telling you that this is a huge victory, that you should be applauding the Supreme Court for standing up to the president, standing up for the Constitution and the rule of law. And I'm just not going to sugarcoat this. This is great that this happened, that the people who were impacted by this executive order now have some clarity about their circumstances. But I don't know that this is the unalloyed victory that people are claiming it is. We are literally a single vote away from the United States Supreme Court undoing reconstruction. Like, it's go time, people. It is time to wake up.