Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, issues final rulings of its term
Episode
20 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Fundraising & VC, Leadership, Software Development
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓Birthright Citizenship Ruling: The 6-3 majority, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, grounded its decision in English common law predating the Constitution, tracing automatic citizenship by birth on U.S. soil back to colonial-era British legal tradition. Justice Kavanaugh's separate concurrence, citing 1950s congressional legislation rather than founding-era intent, signals a potential legislative pathway for future challenges.
- ✓Campaign Finance Shift: The ruling eliminates coordination spending limits between political parties and individual candidates, raising the effective donor ceiling from roughly $7,000 to approximately $500,000 per candidate through party channels. Justice Kagan's dissent frames this as enabling parties to function as alternative checking accounts, structurally increasing the influence of large donors over policy outcomes.
- ✓Transgender Sports Ban: States receiving federal Title IX education funding may now set sports team eligibility based on biological sex at both high school and college levels. Roughly half of U.S. states already had such bans in place; the ruling formally validates those laws and removes legal uncertainty for institutions navigating federal funding compliance.
- ✓Executive Power Expansion: Analysts assess this term as broadly favorable to presidential authority. The court eliminated Humphrey's Executor precedent, allowing the president to remove heads of independent federal agencies without cause. The Federal Reserve remains a noted exception, with that question deferred, but the overall trajectory strengthens the unitary executive framework across the federal government.
- ✓Court Legitimacy Calculus: Legal scholars note the court's pattern of timing sensitive rulings for the final days of the term, when public attention is lower, mirrors the strategic logic of releasing unfavorable news on Fridays. With the court lacking enforcement mechanisms beyond institutional authority, some justices appear sensitive to preserving legitimacy against a president who has disregarded lower court rulings.
What It Covers
The Supreme Court closes its term with three landmark rulings: a 6-3 decision upholding birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment, a majority striking down campaign finance coordination limits between parties and candidates, and a ruling permitting states to ban transgender girls from publicly funded school sports programs.
Key Questions Answered
- •Birthright Citizenship Ruling: The 6-3 majority, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, grounded its decision in English common law predating the Constitution, tracing automatic citizenship by birth on U.S. soil back to colonial-era British legal tradition. Justice Kavanaugh's separate concurrence, citing 1950s congressional legislation rather than founding-era intent, signals a potential legislative pathway for future challenges.
- •Campaign Finance Shift: The ruling eliminates coordination spending limits between political parties and individual candidates, raising the effective donor ceiling from roughly $7,000 to approximately $500,000 per candidate through party channels. Justice Kagan's dissent frames this as enabling parties to function as alternative checking accounts, structurally increasing the influence of large donors over policy outcomes.
- •Transgender Sports Ban: States receiving federal Title IX education funding may now set sports team eligibility based on biological sex at both high school and college levels. Roughly half of U.S. states already had such bans in place; the ruling formally validates those laws and removes legal uncertainty for institutions navigating federal funding compliance.
- •Executive Power Expansion: Analysts assess this term as broadly favorable to presidential authority. The court eliminated Humphrey's Executor precedent, allowing the president to remove heads of independent federal agencies without cause. The Federal Reserve remains a noted exception, with that question deferred, but the overall trajectory strengthens the unitary executive framework across the federal government.
- •Court Legitimacy Calculus: Legal scholars note the court's pattern of timing sensitive rulings for the final days of the term, when public attention is lower, mirrors the strategic logic of releasing unfavorable news on Fridays. With the court lacking enforcement mechanisms beyond institutional authority, some justices appear sensitive to preserving legitimacy against a president who has disregarded lower court rulings.
Notable Moment
Law professor Kim Whaley observed that Justice Thomas's dissent in the birthright case relied on reasoning rooted in the Dred Scott decision, prompting Justice Jackson to point out the contradiction of colleagues claiming the Constitution is colorblind on affirmative action but not on the Fourteenth Amendment.
Episode Transcript
The Supreme Court affirmed birthright citizenship for Americans. A majority rejected a campaign finance restriction. And the court upheld a ban on transgender students in girls' sports. I'm Michelle Martin with Steve Inskeep, and this is a special episode of Up First from NPR News. The court rejected president Trump's bid to deny citizenship to some children born in The US. The president had personally attended arguments in trying to overturn the language of the constitution. Republicans won a different case that lets the party spend money in coordination with individual candidates, and the court combined two cases on transgender athletes. States may require students to play on boys or girls teams based on biological sex. What do the decisions reveal about the court and the country? Stay with us. We've got analysis of today's rulings. This message comes from Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. This week on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, we talked to best selling author Carole Claire Burke about how it feels to write the hit book of the summer. I've been very dissociative, so that's a problem for my future therapist. Yeah. I see. Let's talk about the fact you're not in therapy. That's fascinating. Don't miss our full conversation and the rest of our games. Listen to the Wait Wait Don't Tell Me podcast in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi. It's me, Peter Sagal, host of Wait. Wait. Don't Tell Me. It's summer, and if you wanna turn your pool party into a nerd fest, check out our news quiz. We got comedians. We got celebrities. We got games to help you laugh about the week's news. Yeah. That news. It'll be just like we're all hanging out at your backyard barbecue. Listen every week to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. The Supreme Court has issued the final decisions of this term. The court ruled that president Trump's executive order trying to limit automatic citizenship to babies born in The US is unconstitutional. The court also struck down limits on how much political parties can raise and spend on candidates, and it lets states ban transgender girls from participating in sports at publicly funded schools. Joining us to talk about today's decisions are NPR Supreme Court and justice correspondent Carrie Johnson, legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg, and senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Nina, I'm gonna go to you first. Let's start with a birthright citizenship decision, eagerly awaited decision by all parties. What struck you about the decision? It wasn't a surprise that the Supreme Court struck down president Trump's executive order that would have denied citizenship to …
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