Trump moves to force SCOTUS do-over on birthright citizenship
by Stephen Dinan, Jeff Mordock · The Washington TimesPresident Trump will take the unusual step of asking the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision on birthright citizenship after the high court last week struck down his executive order restricting it.
“I will be asking for a rehearing by the United States Supreme Court immediately. This miscarriage of justice will destroy America if they don’t change their absolutely insane decision,” Mr. Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social.
On the final day of its term, the Supreme Court ruled that an executive order limiting birthright citizenship is unconstitutional. The president’s order required that a baby born on U.S. soil must have at least one parent with citizenship or permanent legal status to receive automatic citizenship.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, joined liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson to rule that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to all children born in the U.S.
“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community,” Mr. Roberts wrote in his 26-page opinion. “The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ’every free-born person in this land.’”
In his Truth Social post, Mr. Trump called the ruling “insane” and said he was already seeing examples of the ruling being exploited.
“Signs and billboards are being put up all over our Southern Border and Mexico advertising birthright citizenship with ’Deliveries starting at $4000.’ Likewise similar signs going up all over our country. Billions of Dollars will be illegally made by this scam with citizenship going to anyone willing to pay,” he wrote.
The court’s ruling lets the losing party file a petition for rehearing within 25 days of the ruling being handed down. However, a majority of justices on the court would have to agree to a rehearing for the case to be considered again.
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Although the Supreme Court rarely grants a rehearing, the Trump administration may see an opening in an argument by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who sided with the majority but did not outright say the Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship.
Mr. Kavanaugh argued in a concurring opinion that Mr. Trump should not have imposed limits on birthright citizenship through an executive order, but rather those limits should be codified by Congress.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch dissented. In his 39-page dissent, Mr. Gorsuch wrote that the court “made a serious mistake” in upholding birthright citizenship.
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Stephen Dinan
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Jeff Mordock
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