Sense narrowly prevails at SCOTUS as Roberts, Barrett, and the liberals uphold birthright citizenship over right wing

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

dissents

The United States Supreme Court affirmed that the Fourteenth Amendment means what it says in a split decision today, upholding birthright citizenship in a decision that should have been 9–0, but wasn’t because most of the Court’s right wing bloc remains incredibly eager to shred the Constitution to do Donald Trump’s bidding.

George W. Bush appointee Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump appointee Amy Coney Barrett once again crossed over to form a majority with the Court’s three liberals — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — to return a ruling finding that “Children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.” Right. It’s a shame this had to be said at all, because it should be just incredibly obvious to anyone, no matter their ideology.

Roberts authored the majority opinion which found that Donald Trump’s executive order to overturn birthright citizenship was unconstitutional. Jackson filed a concurring opinion that was joined by Sotomayor. Three other members of the right wing bloc fully dissented, while Brett Kavanaugh concurred in the judgment and dissenting in part.

Though this ruling should not have been necessary, as I said above, Roberts’ opinion is nevertheless interesting reading because it offers a deep primer on the history of birthright citizenship, culminating with these passages:

What the Civil Rights Act began, the Fourteenth Amendment would finish. Like the Act, the Fourteenth Amendment was intended to repudiate Dred Scott [arguably the worst Supreme Court decision of all time]. This time, however, the goal was even grander — to put the “great question of citizenship” “beyond the legislative power” altogether, to settle the issue once and for all. Cong. Globe, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., at 2891, 2896 (Sen. Howard).

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https://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2026/06/sense-narrowly-prevails-at-scotus-as-roberts-barrett-and-the-liberals-uphold-birthright-citizenship-over-right-wing-dissents.html