{"id":147733,"date":"2026-04-01T13:37:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T21:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/04\/01\/donald-trump-went-to-supreme-court-to-watch-live-as-birthright-citizenship-policy-got-thoroughly-smoked\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T13:37:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T21:37:48","slug":"donald-trump-went-to-supreme-court-to-watch-live-as-birthright-citizenship-policy-got-thoroughly-smoked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/04\/01\/donald-trump-went-to-supreme-court-to-watch-live-as-birthright-citizenship-policy-got-thoroughly-smoked\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump Went To Supreme Court To Watch Live As Birthright Citizenship Policy Got Thoroughly Smoked"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under the second Trump administration, reality constantly keeps topping sarcasm. When three Republican justices ruled against Trump\u2019s tariffs, leading the president to say they \u201csicken\u201d him<\/a>, I described the Chief Justice\u2019s position to a figurative \u201ccuck chair.\u201d<\/a> He\u2019d put aside any principles or sense of institutional legitimacy to give Trump the White House and a blank check of functional total immunity, only to find himself ritualistically humiliated in public for refusing to support Trump\u2019s massive, illegal tax hike. <\/p>\n

And then Donald Trump decided to take the cuck chair analogy much more literally, and physically showed up to watch the Supreme Court humiliate his Solicitor General as he attempted to defend the administration\u2019s attack on birthright citizenship. <\/p>\n

Indeed, his dingbat Civl Rights Division chief thought the chair was, in fact, literal:<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is not. And Jamelle Bouie quickly made the explicit connection: \u201cthey are calling it the scotus cuck chair<\/a>.\u201d Instead, Trump arrived and took a seat in the gallery to witness oral argument over Trump\u2019s effort to undo the Fourteenth Amendment\u2019s citizenship language. The administration\u2019s argument rests on a handful of \u201coriginalists\u201d claiming that the original understanding of the Amendment did not support birthright citizenship despite this being the unchallenged understanding of the text for well over a century. And by, \u201cunchallenged,\u201d we mean originalists like Randy Barnett of Georgetown who wrote a book about the Fourteenth Amendment<\/em> never said anything about this language until now<\/a>. <\/p>\n

A reading so \u201coriginal\u201d that no one noticed it until it happened to align with contemporary Republican party priorities. Reality continues to out pace snark.<\/p>\n

The Court, by and large, did not seem prepared to overturn a bedrock principle of American law based on Richard \u201cCOVID will only kill 500 people<\/a>\u201d Epstein\u2019s trenchant analysis of a subject where he\u2019s not really an expert.<\/p>\n

How bad did it get for the administration? Solicitor General John Sauer, when pressed about all the clear historical evidence that the Fourteenth Amendment was understood to apply to the children of people living here, beat a rapid retreat from originalism, \u201cWe\u2019re in a new world where 8 billion people are one plane ride away from having a child who\u2019s a US citizen.\u201d Only for the Chief to coldly reply, \u201cIt\u2019s a new world. It\u2019s the same Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sauer didn\u2019t fare much better with Justice Gorsuch. As Sauer listed descriptions of what constitutes \u201cunlawfully present,\u201d Gorsuch witheringly remarked \u201cThe stuff you have about \u2018unlawfully present,\u2019 it\u2019s like Roman law sources you\u2019re going to.\u201d Apparently, we\u2019ve found the one man who doesn\u2019t think about the Roman Empire every day. Sauer mentioned Wong Kim Ark<\/em>, the Supreme Court case the unequivocally closed the door on Trump\u2019s birthright citizenship over 125 years ago, and Gorsuch jumped in with \u201cI\u2019m not sure how much you want to rely on Wong Kim Ark<\/em>.\u201d It was like watching a pack of predators play with their kill. <\/p>\n

And that wasn\u2019t even the worst flub with Gorsuch:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sauer had even raised the topic of Native peoples off-handedly earlier in the argument so someone in the office had at least a vague sense that they were walking into a minefield with Gorsuch. And, as the principle of Gorsuch\u2019s Gun teaches: if you raise the topic of Indian law in the first act, it must end up embarrassing the government before the final act.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Barrett didn\u2019t prove any more friendly to the government. Sauer kept trying to create a distinction based on people coming to America with an intent to remain \u2014 advancing the dubious theory that African slaves brought to the United States \u2014 and inarguably covered by the birthright citizenship clause \u2014 took the view that slavery sucks, but hey at least we live here now!<\/em> Barrett bypassed this insanity to ask the related question about the children of human trafficking victims brought to the United States illegally. Sauer\u2019s answer could best be described as\u2026 confused.<\/p>\n

Kavanaugh seemed most interested in finding a quick and easy way out of the case that could make the right decision while staying in Trump\u2019s good graces. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over and over, Sauer stressed \u201cdomicile\u201d as the key to citizenship, despite the word appearing exactly zero times in the text. <\/p>\n

Even Clarence Thomas seemed half-assed in his enthusiasm for the administration\u2019s argument. He focused on Dred Scott<\/em>, laying the groundwork for an opinion rewriting the Fourteenth Amendment to only<\/em> apply to the children of freed slaves and a constitutional anachronism in 2026. Though by the end it wasn\u2019t even clear if his heart was in it.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Sam Alito appeared to be the only justice fully on board with Trump\u2019s argument, trying to sell a story about unwanted immigration being non-existent at the time of the Fourteenth Amendment, as though there wasn\u2019t an aggressive anti-Catholic movement in the 19th Century whose nightmare scenario was an Italian immigrant\u2019s son being on the Supreme Court. Imagine the look on their faces if one could go back and tell them an Italian-American Catholic with a European knighthood<\/a> would be the one channeling their vision from the bench. At one point, Cecilia Wang, arguing for the ACLU, pointedly noted that the children of Italian immigrants in 1898 wouldn\u2019t be citizens under Alito\u2019s reading, though he seemed unmoved as though he didn\u2019t get that she was talking about his community. It\u2019s the Chappelle Show<\/em>\u2018s Clayton Bigsby bit, but real.<\/p>\n

As for Trump\u2026 he bailed on the hearing early<\/a> after it became glaringly obvious how badly he was losing. <\/p>\n

What are the odds that he fires Sauer within the next 48 hours? Got to be pretty good, right? Keep on eye on the White House insiders making huge Polymarket bets on this about 10 minutes before it happens.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Donald Trump Went To Supreme Court To Watch Live As Birthright Citizenship Policy Got Thoroughly Smoked<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Under the second Trump administration, reality constantly keeps topping sarcasm. When three Republican justices ruled against Trump\u2019s tariffs, leading the president to say they \u201csicken\u201d him<\/a>, I described the Chief Justice\u2019s position to a figurative \u201ccuck chair.\u201d<\/a> He\u2019d put aside any principles or sense of institutional legitimacy to give Trump the White House and a blank check of functional total immunity, only to find himself ritualistically humiliated in public for refusing to support Trump\u2019s massive, illegal tax hike. <\/p>\n

And then Donald Trump decided to take the cuck chair analogy much more literally, and physically showed up to watch the Supreme Court humiliate his Solicitor General as he attempted to defend the administration\u2019s attack on birthright citizenship. <\/p>\n

Indeed, his dingbat Civl Rights Division chief thought the chair was, in fact, literal:<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is not. And Jamelle Bouie quickly made the explicit connection: \u201cthey are calling it the scotus cuck chair<\/a>.\u201d Instead, Trump arrived and took a seat in the gallery to witness oral argument over Trump\u2019s effort to undo the Fourteenth Amendment\u2019s citizenship language. The administration\u2019s argument rests on a handful of \u201coriginalists\u201d claiming that the original understanding of the Amendment did not support birthright citizenship despite this being the unchallenged understanding of the text for well over a century. And by, \u201cunchallenged,\u201d we mean originalists like Randy Barnett of Georgetown who wrote a book about the Fourteenth Amendment<\/em> never said anything about this language until now<\/a>. <\/p>\n

A reading so \u201coriginal\u201d that no one noticed it until it happened to align with contemporary Republican party priorities. Reality continues to out pace snark.<\/p>\n

The Court, by and large, did not seem prepared to overturn a bedrock principle of American law based on Richard \u201cCOVID will only kill 500 people<\/a>\u201d Epstein\u2019s trenchant analysis of a subject where he\u2019s not really an expert.<\/p>\n

How bad did it get for the administration? Solicitor General John Sauer, when pressed about all the clear historical evidence that the Fourteenth Amendment was understood to apply to the children of people living here, beat a rapid retreat from originalism, \u201cWe\u2019re in a new world where 8 billion people are one plane ride away from having a child who\u2019s a US citizen.\u201d Only for the Chief to coldly reply, \u201cIt\u2019s a new world. It\u2019s the same Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sauer didn\u2019t fare much better with Justice Gorsuch. As Sauer listed descriptions of what constitutes \u201cunlawfully present,\u201d Gorsuch witheringly remarked \u201cThe stuff you have about \u2018unlawfully present,\u2019 it\u2019s like Roman law sources you\u2019re going to.\u201d Apparently, we\u2019ve found the one man who doesn\u2019t think about the Roman Empire every day. Sauer mentioned Wong Kim Ark<\/em>, the Supreme Court case the unequivocally closed the door on Trump\u2019s birthright citizenship over 125 years ago, and Gorsuch jumped in with \u201cI\u2019m not sure how much you want to rely on Wong Kim Ark<\/em>.\u201d It was like watching a pack of predators play with their kill. <\/p>\n

And that wasn\u2019t even the worst flub with Gorsuch:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sauer had even raised the topic of Native peoples off-handedly earlier in the argument so someone in the office had at least a vague sense that they were walking into a minefield with Gorsuch. And, as the principle of Gorsuch\u2019s Gun teaches: if you raise the topic of Indian law in the first act, it must end up embarrassing the government before the final act.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Barrett didn\u2019t prove any more friendly to the government. Sauer kept trying to create a distinction based on people coming to America with an intent to remain \u2014 advancing the dubious theory that African slaves brought to the United States \u2014 and inarguably covered by the birthright citizenship clause \u2014 took the view that slavery sucks, but hey at least we live here now!<\/em> Barrett bypassed this insanity to ask the related question about the children of human trafficking victims brought to the United States illegally. Sauer\u2019s answer could best be described as\u2026 confused.<\/p>\n

Kavanaugh seemed most interested in finding a quick and easy way out of the case that could make the right decision while staying in Trump\u2019s good graces. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over and over, Sauer stressed \u201cdomicile\u201d as the key to citizenship, despite the word appearing exactly zero times in the text. <\/p>\n

Even Clarence Thomas seemed half-assed in his enthusiasm for the administration\u2019s argument. He focused on Dred Scott<\/em>, laying the groundwork for an opinion rewriting the Fourteenth Amendment to only<\/em> apply to the children of freed slaves and a constitutional anachronism in 2026. Though by the end it wasn\u2019t even clear if his heart was in it.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Sam Alito appeared to be the only justice fully on board with Trump\u2019s argument, trying to sell a story about unwanted immigration being non-existent at the time of the Fourteenth Amendment, as though there wasn\u2019t an aggressive anti-Catholic movement in the 19th Century whose nightmare scenario was an Italian immigrant\u2019s son being on the Supreme Court. Imagine the look on their faces if one could go back and tell them an Italian-American Catholic with a European knighthood<\/a> would be the one channeling their vision from the bench. At one point, Cecilia Wang, arguing for the ACLU, pointedly noted that the children of Italian immigrants in 1898 wouldn\u2019t be citizens under Alito\u2019s reading, though he seemed unmoved as though he didn\u2019t get that she was talking about his community. It\u2019s the Chappelle Show<\/em>\u2018s Clayton Bigsby bit, but real.<\/p>\n

As for Trump\u2026 he bailed on the hearing early<\/a> after it became glaringly obvious how badly he was losing. <\/p>\n

What are the odds that he fires Sauer within the next 48 hours? Got to be pretty good, right? Keep on eye on the White House insiders making huge Polymarket bets on this about 10 minutes before it happens.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Donald Trump Went To Supreme Court To Watch Live As Birthright Citizenship Policy Got Thoroughly Smoked<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Under the second Trump administration, reality constantly keeps topping sarcasm. When three Republican justices ruled against Trump\u2019s tariffs, leading the president to say they \u201csicken\u201d him, I described the Chief Justice\u2019s position to a figurative \u201ccuck chair.\u201d He\u2019d put aside any principles or sense of institutional legitimacy to give Trump the White House and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":147734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Headshot-300x200-qKUpJy.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}