Favoring Trump, SCOTUS Majority Undermines Federal Court Judges 

Closing out another term, the right-wing Supreme Court majority gave the Constitution and the Rule of Law the finger in Trump v. CASA, limiting the ability of federal courts to serve as a check on extreme executive action. In its 6-3 opinion in CASA, the right-wing majority sidesteps the issue of birthright citizenship and positions itself as reigning in the power of the federal courts instead of the increasingly out-of-pocket executive branch. 

At issue were federal court injunctions that prevented Trump’s January 20 executive order restricting birthright citizenship for babies born in the U.S. to non-citizen parents. The majority in CASA essentially hides behind its interpretation that a federal court does not have the authority to issue a nationwide injunction for arguably unconstitutional actions of the Trump administration that impact the entire country. This would force impacted individuals to sue in every single jurisdiction to have their rights enforced and could create disparate application of the Constitution based on where a person was living. 

Writing another formidable dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pulled no punches, rebuking her colleagues and the Trump administration’s erosion of the Constitution. 

“This perverse burden shifting cannot coexist with the rule of law,” wrote Jackson. “As a result, the Judiciary–the one institution that is solely responsible for ensuring our Republic endures as a Nation of laws–has put both our legal system, and our system of government, in grave jeopardy.”  

The shrug and wink happening between the right-wing majority on SCOTUS and in the other two branches of the federal government should be alarming. As Elie Mystal wrote for The Nation, SCOTUS just made it difficult for federal courts to stop Trump from exceeding his authority to end constitutionally protected birthright citizenship. 

“It’s a distinction, one that lawyers will try to exploit for an entire rearguard action to defend citizenship in this country, but one that’s unlikely to make much of a difference if you happen to be born on the Republican side of the tracks,” wrote Mystal. “Once you read the fine print, it becomes clear that this decision is a historic, five-alarm catastrophe.”

Immigrant Rights’ Coalition Immediately Files Class-Action 

Testing the limits of the majority’s opinion in CASA, a coalition representing immigrant rights advocates, filed a nationwide class-action lawsuit challenging the executive order restricting birthright citizenship. The legal coalition behind the class-action, including the ACLU and the Legal Defense Fund, still have a separate case making its way through the federal courts that was not considered in Friday’s SCOTUS opinion. 

“The Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship, and no procedural ruling will stop us from fighting to uphold that promise,” said Tianna Mays, legal director for Democracy Defenders Fund. “Our plaintiffs, and millions of families across this country, deserve clarity, stability, and justice. We look forward to making our case in court again.” 

On its face, the majority opinion in CASA appears to be a mixed bag. Still, it gave Trump enough leeway to feel vindicated in his erosion of the Constitution, a cornerstone of American democracy. Unambiguously affirmed in the 14th Amendment, Birthright citizenship has been widely recognized for generations.  

“Citizenship is a right afforded to us by birth, not by privilege,” said Karla McKanders, director of the Legal Defense Fund’s Thurgood Marshall Institute. “The Trump administration’s executive order is an unlawful attempt to entrench racial hierarchies and establish a second class of citizens in the United States. We will continue working to ensure that birthright citizenship — a right granted by the U.S. Constitution — is protected, and that families are not torn apart because of this executive order.”

As SCOTUS cannot invalidate the amendment itself outright, it distorts legal analysis to help the Trump administration subvert over 150 years of legal precedent. Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of the Advancement Project, called the decision “one of the most dangerous and blatantly unconstitutional attacks on immigrant communities and the rule of law in modern history.” 

“Through its restrictions on universal injunctions, the Court is placing limits on who could be protected from this executive order, which means to strip U.S.-born children of non-citizen parents of their birthright citizenship in a direct assault on the 14th Amendment,” Dianis said. “As Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson points out, today’s ruling is an existential threat to the rule of law because it allows the Trump Administration to apply the executive order to many newborns who are guaranteed citizenship under the 14th Amendment but have not yet filed a lawsuit in federal court.”

While this decision may not directly impact Black Americans, the expansion of authoritarian power granted to the Trump administration will certainly find its way to our doorstep. One of three Reconstruction Era amendments, the 14th Amendment has served as a launch pad for ensuring equal protection and due process, and various civil and human rights. 

“To challenge it erases a core American promise and serves as a calculated step toward authoritarianism,” Dianis said. “This reckless and racially motivated executive action is a transparent attempt to silence and disempower communities of color, particularly Latine, AAPI, African, and Caribbean immigrant families.  And it comes alongside a barrage of executive orders that attempt to dismantle racial equity, voting rights, and immigration protections, each designed to chip away at our collective power.”

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