This week the Supreme Court ruled against Trump on birthright citizenship.
And this is a good thing: don’t get me wrong. But to imagine that we should be praising the Supreme Court for one ruling when their other rulings are doing such damage is ludicrous. Even on the same day as birthright citizenship, they upheld a ban on trans athletes and struck down a major campaign financing limitation. Not to mention the other insanities they’ve engaged in throughout the term, such as overturning the precedent that safeguarded independent agencies (well, except for the one that controls their retirement accounts), and gutting the Voting Rights Act (the latter of which I covered three weeks in a row).
And many have been reporting that the decision was 6 – 3. In fact, the decision that the Constitution guaranteed birthright citizenship was only 5 – 4. As Melissa Murray of Strict Scrutiny said in their emergency episode:
... this decision means that five people— five fucking peopl e— on the Supreme Court decided that the proposition that the Constitution says what it says is actually meaningful. That’s it. Just five people. Five to four. We are literally doing constitutional law by a single vote.
As for why that should disturb you, Leah Litman puts it this way a bit later in the video:
So reactions to it being 5 – 4: in my view it should be an absolute scandal. Rarely does the court do something that surprises me. I thought, 7 – 2, maybe 6 – 3, and OMG it is 5 – 4. And that is obviously an invitation to just try it again.
For more good explanations into why this “victory” is still very concerning, including some great analyses of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s excellent response to Clarence Thomas’ insane dissent, try Jamelle Bouie’s Takes™ or Cristian Farias reporting for Legal Eagle.
Other things you need to know this week:
- On the most recent episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver gives an excellent explanation of the gerrymandering problem.
- Adam Kinzinger gives an excellent explanation of Trump’s corruption.
- On the Armageddon Update, Christopher Titus gives an excellent explanation of Mamdani’s progress thus far (and the rightwing nutjobs’ response to it).
In the realm of hope, I will point you to Mamdani’s Fourth of July speech, to demonstrate the promise of Democratic Socialism, and also to Adam Kinzinger’s Fourth of July reflections, to demonstrate that even some conservatives know the score. And, from Bernie Sanders, a breakdown of our current political moment, that actually made me feel hopeful for a change.
A happy Independence Day, to my fellow Americans, and a plea to all the rest: we’re not all as dumb, and/or greedy, and/or racist, as the loudest among us are. Promise.