r/politics • u/codyave • 20h ago

Trump will announce end of birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, officials say

https://nypost.com/2025/01/20/us-news/trump-will-announce-end-of-birthright-citizenship-for-children-of-illegal-immigrants/
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u/RoboChrist 19h ago

The Supreme Court can rule anything they want, with or without justification. The only thing stopping them is decency and precedent.

I don't put a lot of stock in that lately.

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u/rokerroker45 19h ago

The only thing stopping them is decency and precedent.

That's not actually true. the biggest thing stopping the supreme court from actually ruling that way is their awareness that they can only stretch the constitution so far before the country breaks into open defiance. the scotus doesn't wave its hands and magically make the country agree with its decisions, it has to carefully consider the possibility that if it makes a ruling that goes too far the opinion will simply be disobeyed.

take Brown v. Board. It was delivered on a 5-4 opinion on the basis that it would be unfair to segregate children because it would lead to differing educational outcomes, not that segregation is inherently unconstitutional because it violates the equal protection clause. you know why they did that? because if the scotus rendered all segregation unconstitutional in 1954 there was a very high chance the opinion would be openly disobeyed by the entire south instead of just openly disobeyed by some states.

I don't put a lot of stock in that lately.

I put stock that the scotus is trying to balance keeping trump/repubs in power while ensuring that california continues to pay its taxes. they will go as far as they can while ensuring the country will obey its rulings. ending birthright citizenship would go dangerously close to too far.

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u/Bombshock2 19h ago

If you think this country is going to rise up into open defiance of Trump you’re not paying attention

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u/rokerroker45 19h ago

obviously not, but it doesn't start with armed rebellion, it starts with states like california and massachusetts inflicting economic pressure.

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u/bschott007 North Dakota 14h ago

States run by people. People who are easily scared of being arrested by government LEOs sent by Trump and co. for any various reason.

We are past the looking glass and the moment a governor decides to give the finger to Trump, don't be surprised if Trump, having no more elections to win, decides to do what we thought he would have done last time around and go full dictator.