President Donald Trump took a victory a lap on Friday after the Supreme Court limited nationwide injunctions issued by lower court judges against his executive order to effectively end birthright citizenship.
“This was a big one, wasn’t it?” Trump said as he walked into the White House briefing room.
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While Trump celebrated the 6-3 court decision as a “monumental win,” the justices did not weigh in on whether his executive order is constitutional and allowed legal challenges to continue.
Attorney General Pam Bondi acknowledged the justices will rule on the merits of Trump’s Day 1 order during their next term, which starts in October.
Trump and Bondi, though, praised the court’s conservative majority for limiting a federal judge’s power to block a president’s policy nationwide. Justice Amy Coney Barrett argued only the Supreme Court can provide such universal relief.
Nationwide injunctions have been at the center of the administration’s monthslong standoff with the judiciary, as several of Trump’s actions — from his immigration crackdown to efforts to freeze federal funding — have been halted by district court judges.
“I was elected on a historic mandate,” Trump said from the podium. “In recent months we’ve seen a handful of radical left judges effectively try to overrule the rightful powers of the president to stop the American people from getting the policies that they’ve voted for in record numbers. It was a grave threat to democracy.”
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Trump specifically thanked Justice Barrett, who authored the opinion. Barrett has drawn some ire from conservatives for staking out independent ground and at times breaking with Trump, who appointed her to the bench.
Asked about the conservative criticism of Barrett, Trump responded: “I don’t know about that. I just have great respect for her. I always have. And her decision was brilliantly written today.”
Trump also continued to make the case for his Day 1 executive order that would deny citizenship to children born on U.S. soil to unlawful immigrants or those on a temporary immigrant status. District court judges, so far, have said such a move would appear plainly contrary to the text of the 14th Amendment and legal precedent.
The administration’s claimed in court proceedings birthright citizenship creates a strong incentive for illegal immigration.
“They used birthright citizenship, some of the worst people, some of the cartels, to get people into our country,” Trump said on Friday.
Several Democrats, however, quickly spoke out against the court’s ruling.
Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, called it a “green light” for Trump to “unravel the foundations of American democracy.”
“The Supreme Court’s decision to limit courts of their long-held authority to block illegal executive actions is an unprecedented and terrifying step toward authoritarianism, a grave danger to our democracy, and a predictable move from this extremist MAGA court,” he wrote on X. “By weakening the power of district courts to check the presidency, the Court is not defending the Constitution — it’s defacing it.”
“His plan to end birthright citizenship is blatantly unconstitutional, but instead of stopping it in its tracks, the Court has instead ducked the question and bowed to an out-of-control Executive Branch,” Schumer added.
