March 31, 2026

The Trump Administration will ask the Supreme Court tomorrow whether children born to people in the country illegally or born to people on visas qualify as birthright citizens. The case appears to be yet another attack vector in the administration’s war on political opposition. ¹

The case calls into question the court’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment and related decisions going back to the 1898 case that made birthright citizenship a matter of U. S. law. The government is relying in part on doctrine that can be traced back to a former Confederate officer who argued before the Supreme Court in favor of legalized segregation.

Currently, 4.4 million children (under 18 years of age) live with at least one illegal immigrant parent. Additionally, some 250,000 children are born in the U.S annually would be excluded from birthright citizenship protections should the Court rule in favor of the Trump Administration. In other words, the gift the Supreme Court can deliver to conservatives is the reduction of 1 million Democrat voters each federal election cycle and the prevention of some percentage of another 4.4 million Democrat voters over the next 17 years. ^{2, 3}

Conservatives at every level of politics have been steadily working to erode opposition to the current regime. Marc Elias’ Democracy Docket (not a sponsor, but I urge you to consider supporting their work) recounts court case after court case where his law firm is engaged in matters of voting law. Mail-in voting in particular has been under attack, because Democrats are known to favor this method of casting ballots (Conservatives, in contrast, tend to vote at the ballot box). Recently the U.S. Postal Service changed their rules about postmarking, which will impact when voters should mail in their ballots. In Texas in particular, the deep red state government has railed against “failing” federal border protection efforts — because they understand that naturalized citizens generally vote blue, and Texans with Latin American or Hispanic heritage already outnumber whites in the state. ^{4, 5}

Update: April 2

President Trump became the first president in history to attend oral arguments at the Supreme Court yesterday, as the Court prepared to hear his administration’s case against birthright citizenship. ⁶

He also became the first president to walk out of the Court while it was in session, and then to whine about it over social media:

SCOTUSblog provided an excellent play-by-play on the proceedings, noting, as did The Wall Street Journal, that the Court “expressed skepticism” about the arguments presented by U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer. ⁷

Featured image by MattWade – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5831566

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1. Jouvenal, J. (2026, March 30). Trump officials cite white supremacists in bid to end birthright citizenship. The Washington Post. Retrieved March 31, 2026, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/30/trump-birthright-citizenship-supreme-court-case/ ↩︎
2. LISTEN LIVE: Supreme Court considers constitutionality of Trump’s birthright citizenship order. (2026, March 30). [Video]. PBS News. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/listen-live-supreme-court-considers-constitutionality-of-trumps-birthright-citizenship-order ↩︎
3. Chernikoff, S., & Padilla, R. (2025, June 27). Supreme Court birthright decision: How many people gain citizenship this way? USA Today. Retrieved March 31, 2026, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2025/06/27/supreme-court-birthright-citizenship-decision-population-impact/ ↩︎
4. Court cases. (2024, June 5). Democracy Docket. https://www.democracydocket.com/cases/ ↩︎
5. Center, C. L. (2026, March 4). Here’s what the new USPS rule means for voting by mail. Campaign Legal Center. https://campaignlegal.org/update/heres-what-new-usps-rule-means-voting-mail ↩︎
6. Ellis, L. (2026, April 1). In First Comments After Arguments, Trump Says U.S. ‘Stupid’ for Birthright Citizenship. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 2, 2026, from https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/supreme-court-us-birthright-citizenship-trump/card/in-first-comments-after-arguments-trump-says-u-s-stupid-for-birthright-citizenship-vVKnY7l10rwNLWgEQJ2i ↩︎
7. Howe, A., & Howe, A. (2026, April 2). Supreme Court appears likely to side against Trump on birthright citizenship. SCOTUSblog. https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/04/supreme-court-appears-likely-to-side-against-trump-on-birthright-citizenship/ ↩︎