Rogue Judges and Birthright Citizenship
The Political Orphanage
Andrew Heaton
4.9 • 1000 Ratings
🗓️ 6 October 2025
⏱️ 79 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Trump v. Casa the Supreme Court ruled that district judges cannot issue "universal injunctions" against the federal government… Well, what the hell does that mean? The ruling comes in regard to Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship. Is the Trump administration accurately "rediscovering" the true meaning of the Constitution, or just twisting and mangling it to make sure nobody here illegally can confer citizenship on their kids? Tim Sandefur of the Goldwater Institute joins to discuss.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On January 20th, newly re-inograted President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14160, |
| 0:08.1 | directing the State Department, Social Security Administration, and any other relevant executive agencies to disregard the operating presumption of birthright citizenship. |
| 0:17.9 | Namely, that anyone born on U.S. soil is automatically a U.S. citizen, regardless |
| 0:23.1 | of the circumstances of their birth. Executive Order 14160 said otherwise. It said in effect |
| 0:31.3 | that the standard birthright interpretation of citizenship is wrong. Henceforth, all federal agencies would proceed |
| 0:40.0 | under the following understanding. Citizenship is not automatic. Any person born to a mother on |
| 0:46.6 | U.S. soil who was unlawfully present in the United States and whose father was not a U.S. citizen |
| 0:51.8 | or permanent resident at the time of the birth was not legally a citizen. |
| 0:56.4 | That is to say, if a woman from Mexico or Honduras or Canada or Narnia entered the country illegally or overstayed their visa, |
| 1:07.2 | any offspring born in the United States would not be granted citizenship or any papers to that |
| 1:12.9 | effect. In other words, the Trump administration said, there's nothing magic about soil. |
| 1:19.5 | If you're born on American soil, but neither of your parents have legal residency, neither do you. |
| 1:25.5 | Which prompted multiple parties to say, hey, wait a minute, that's what you wish |
| 1:32.2 | the law was. That's what you wish the law was, but it's not what the law is. The president cannot say, |
| 1:40.6 | I'm going to interpret the Constitution as whatever I wish the Constitution said. You have to go with the law as interpreted, or you have to amend the law. So, the states of Washington, Arizona, Illinois, Oregon, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, all filed for injunctions in federal court, joined by a couple of cities, various immigrant rights |
| 2:03.5 | organizations, and a handful of pregnant ladies in various immigration statuses. In effect, |
| 2:10.3 | these groups asked federal judges to rule the president is wrong. Belay that order. |
| 2:18.0 | Belay! |
| 2:24.3 | Go back to the previous system of presumed territory-based birthright citizenship. |
| 2:29.8 | Adhere to the ancient and consensus doctrine of just solely, right of the soil. |
| 2:32.3 | And three federal judges obliged. |
| 2:37.0 | John C. Coffinauer in Washington said the executive order was blatantly unconstitutional and issued a preliminary injunction. Judge Leo T. Sorkin of Massachusetts |
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