Trump arrives at Supreme Court to attend birthright citizenship arguments
WASHINGTON— President Trump on Wednesday became the first president to participate in oral arguments at the Supreme Court, putting himself squarely in a high-stakes legal battle over one of his administration’s most important orders.
Trump arrived in court by limousine Wednesday morning for arguments over whether the president has the authority to effectively rewrite the Constitution by ending the birthright citizenship of children born in the United States to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily.
Ahead of Wednesday’s arguments, Trump suggested that Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices who ruled against his agenda were “very stupid.”
“Some people will call it stupidity, some people will call it disloyalty,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
“Stupid Judges and Judges will not make a great Country!” the president wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
The unprecedented outlook shows how high Trump believes the stakes are, according to Adam Winkler, a professor of constitutional law at UCLA.
“It’s unclear why Trump participated,” Winkler said. “Maybe he’s just interested in the extraordinary drama of a Supreme Court argument. Or maybe he’s trying to intimidate the justices, like the scene in ‘The Godfather Part II’ where the mob boss comes into the hearing to intimidate the witness into recanting his testimony.”
No matter what, Trump’s presence likely won’t change minds at the dais, Winkler said.
Judges, including some who share Trump’s judicial philosophy, value their independence. Winkler said it would change the mood, though; Most hearings are quiet and academic.
The birthright citizenship law, which Trump signed on the first day of his second term, is the cornerstone of his administration’s broad crackdown on immigrants.
Trump framed the policy as a necessary step to curb what he described as abuse of the immigration system.
“Birthright Citizenship is not about rich people from China and the rest of the world who ridiculously want their children and hundreds of thousands more to become United States citizens FOR A WAGE. It’s about SLAVES’ BABIES!”
Every lower court that considered the issue found the ruling illegal and blocked it from going into effect. The country’s highest court is expected to make a final decision in early summer.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
