In a few hours, the Supreme Court will hear arguments about President Trump’s plan to take away the right to fraternity. The case stems from an executive order Trump issued on his first day back in the White House that would have repealed a long-standing law granting citizenship to children born in the United States, regardless of whether their parents were non-citizens or permanent residents. That order was quickly challenged in court and blocked by lower courts.
The Supreme Court will now consider whether the order is constitutional – that is, does it comply with the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment?
That clause is the first sentence of the amendment:
“All persons born or begotten in the United States, and subject to its jurisdiction, are citizens of the United States and of the country in which they reside.”
It was adopted in 1868, to partially reverse the court’s 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, who said that Black people of African descent were not and could not be US citizens. The language seems very clear.
But remember this clause carefully: “and under your authority.” What those words mean will fuel arguments for both the Trump administration and its opponents — advocates representing children across the country who will be affected.
Administrative
For more than 125 years, courts have interpreted “under the jurisdiction” to mean almost anyone born on US soil. (There are exceptions for children of foreign embassies and children of enemy residents.)
Trump’s view, however, is that the children of undocumented immigrants are not under US jurisdiction. Why? Among other reasons, commentators say, is because their parents do not owe loyalty to the US but to the nations they left behind. The children of undocumented immigrants, they say, should be treated the same way we treat the children of diplomats — born on US soil, but under the flag of a foreign nation.
Some hardline legal experts told The Times that the case may be closer to a hit than previously thought. One of them said, “We’ve seen enough to convince us that this question was not open and shut, that conventional wisdom may not be true and that the Trump EO has more to do than people realize.”
What you can watch
The opposing view is that birth citizenship is a legal matter and has nothing to do with the parents of the children who receive it. There is no language about parents in the 14th Amendment. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 mentions them only in the context of children born outside the US Both the amendment and the law use the same language: Anyone “born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” is a citizen.
Adam Liptak, our senior legal affairs writer, wrote about that recently: “Whatever the original meaning of the 14th Amendment, there is overwhelming evidence—in judicial decisions, legislative reports and executive order—that Congress understood the 1952 law to guarantee birthright.”
So yesterday I asked Adam what he would be looking at the most. Here is what he told me:
We will know whether the administration has a prayer of victory based on the first questions from the center of the court – the chief justice and three Trump appointees. If they criticize the administration’s lawyer with questionable questions, which seems likely, it will be a good bet that Trump’s theory of long-term review will be destroyed.
If the lawyer’s speeches are considered to present difficult problems of constitutional interpretation, at the end of June, when the court issues the major decisions of the term, it will be interesting.
(Subscribe to the Docket, Adam’s newsletter, which covers law and justice issues.)
The history of immigration
Last before the court. As the jury prepares to hear this historic case today, The Times reporters took a closer look at their families’ histories. In one, reporters found newcomers to America – colonists, enslaved people and immigrants alike – paving the way for interest to rise to the highest court in the land.
They wrote: “These nine men and women are now going to judge their nationality.
Some amazing journalism, made up of immigration and census records, shipping details, biographies, memoirs and speeches related to the judges’ families, worth reading as we wait for the debates to begin. You can find it here.
Tonight, weather permitting, the Artemis II mission will blast off from Florida, carrying humans to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
What’s going on? Four astronauts will spend 10 days in a spacecraft with an interior space the size of two vans. They will test the capsule for future missions, including those that could return humans to the lunar surface. When astronauts fly around the far side of the moon, they will be farther from Earth than any human has ever been.
Who are the astronauts? They are military pilots, engineers and all-around achievers.
Read more about the mission. Again listen to “The Daily,” which is about presentation.
SPORTS
Golf: Tiger Woods has announced he will “seek treatment” after his DUI arrest last week, meaning he will miss the Masters.
Here’s an unusual Easter recipe from Alison Roman for apples with honey and crushed walnuts. Prepared haroseth, essentially: a sweet, tangy salad of ingredients that are often chopped into a paste. If the sweet salad haroseth is going to cause problems at your Seder table – haroseth is meant to symbolize the mud used by the enslaved Israelites to build in ancient Egypt – I would advise you to make potatoes smeared with olive oil to go with your brisket, lamb or chicken, and call that symbolic cement. Whatever you make, this is a great salad.
A DREAM
Some teens play video games after school, go to band practice or build Lego sets. Michael Haskell, 17, buys abandoned lockers and sells their contents for a profit. “I think he’s learning about human ways, human nature,” his mother told the Times. “People’s lives are in these keys.”
More about culture
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“The Book of Mormon” celebrates its 15th year of laughter and gasps on Broadway. Jesse Green, former theater critic for The Times, revisited it recently and wondered if the play, which has grossed an estimated $1 billion over 6,000 performances, “could still be produced today.”
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Eurovision, the international song contest, is coming to Asia.
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Stephen Colbert blamed the “Bachelorette” cancellation on high gas prices.
