The Brian Lehrer Show Supreme Court Opinions
Jun 30, 2026
Emily Bazelon, New York Times Magazine writer and legal scholar known for criminal justice work, breaks down the Court’s big rulings. She explains the birthright citizenship decision and its stakes. She unpacks the trans athletes and campaign finance rulings and why opinions dropped late in the term. She also assesses shifts in executive power and likely congressional responses.
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Court Affirms Broad Birthright Citizenship
- The Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship against an executive order by grounding it in the 14th Amendment's historical meaning.
- Chief Justice Roberts' majority rejects narrow 'subject to the jurisdiction' readings and limits exceptions to diplomats or hostile invaders, preserving the broad practice.
Kavanaugh Leaves Door Open To Congress
- Justice Kavanaugh concurred only in the judgment and relied on a 1940 statute rather than the Constitution, leaving Congress the primary path to change citizenship rules.
- That makes reversals easier via legislation than via constitutional amendment, creating a political, not constitutional, avenue.
Dissent Uses Domicile Theory To Narrow Citizenship
- The dissenters lean on a domicile-based reading of 'subject to the jurisdiction' to exclude temporary or illegal entrants from automatic citizenship.
- Bazelon calls that reading thin and historically ahistorical because 19th-century immigration lacked modern illegal-immigrant concepts.
