Supreme Court justice mocks Trump’s move to end birthright citizenship
EDITORIAL:
Our question is why is the supreme court making laws?
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Story by Debadrita Sur, The Daily Express, 5/15/25
President Donald Trump has been ridiculed by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan after he proposed to put an end to birthright citizenship.
Appointed by former President Barack Obama, Kagan chastised the U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer for not challenging Trump’s orders and for challenging the judicial authority to issue nationwide injunctions, a move that makes no sense for the administration’s ultimate goal.
“Let’s assume that you lose in the lower courts pretty uniformly, as you have been losing on this issue, and that you never take this question to us,” Kagan said.
“I mean, I noticed that you didn’t take the substantive question to us. You only took the nationwide injunction question to us… You’re losing a bunch of cases,” she added.
The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to consider ending the judicial power for sweeping injunctions, but did not ask for a ruling on the constitutionality of birthright citizenship.
However, Kagan said that since the two issues are related, the injunction is keeping the executive order from going into effect.
According to her, the Trump administration should have asked the Supreme Court to rule on the birthright citizenship instead of the injunctions.
If the Trump administration succeeds in ending them, the lower courts will have to strike down cases one after the other, Kagan said, which will have the same outcome against the administration’s proposal.
When Sauer said that the injunctions would be a “clean vehicle” for the high court, freeing it of complications.
However, Kagan seemed unimpressed, interrupting Sauer by saying. “You’re ignoring the importance of my question. I’m suggesting that in a case in which the government is losing constantly, there’s nobody else who’s going to appeal. They’re winning. It’s up to you to decide whether to take this case to us. If I were in your shoes, there is no way I’d approach the Supreme Court with this case.”
“Nobody is going to lose this case,” Kagan said, stating that any parent whose kids are denied American citizenship can uphold the 14th Amendment, which guarantees the right of citizenship to anyone born on American soil.
“It’s just, you’re going to have, like, individual by individual by individual, and all of those individuals are going to win,” Kagan said.
She added that the only people who could lose are the ones who cannot afford to challenge the administration.
Before Sauer could answer, Kagan cut him off again.
Sauer began, “The tools that are provided to address hypotheticals like this…”
“This is not a hypothetical. This is happening out there, right? Every court has ruled against you,” Kagan said.