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The Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship decision isn’t as devastating as you think

11 0
27.06.2025
Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett and former Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy talk with President Donald Trump as he arrives to address to a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

On Friday, the Supreme Court released its long-awaited decision in Trump v. CASA, a case challenging President Donald Trump’s attempt to strip many Americans of citizenship. The Court handed Trump a narrow victory along party lines, with all six Republicans in the majority and all three Democrats dissenting.

The 14th Amendment provides that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” are citizens, with one narrow exception that does not arise in CASA, so Trump’s executive order trying to strip many babies born in the US of their citizenship is clearly and unambiguously unconstitutional. Multiple lower courts have all reached this same conclusion.

There are three important takeaways from the CASA opinion:

1) It’s not actually about birthright citizenship

The specific issue was whether all the lower courts that struck down the Trump anti-citizenship order may issue a “nationwide........

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