The Supreme Court Practically Gave Trump Permission to Rewrite the Constitution.
They're dismantling the 14th Amendment, the same amendment that made Black Americans citizens after centuries of legal erasure.
Today’s SCOTUS decision changed everything. The Supreme Court handed Donald Trump the keys to experiment with who gets to be an American citizen: state by state, and court by court.
And most people have no idea what just happened.
What the Supreme Court Actually Did
The Supreme Court ruled that federal judges can no longer protect constitutional rights for everyone, only for the specific people who sue. This means that Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship can now take effect in the 28 states that haven't challenged it. Your zip code will determine whether the 14th Amendment applies to you.
The Court ruled 6-3 that federal district courts lack the statutory authority under the Federal Judiciary Act of 1789 to issue "universal injunctions", court orders that block government policies nationwide, including for people who aren't parties to the lawsuit.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the majority, held that these broad injunctions "likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has given to federal courts." The Court distinguished between providing "complete relief" to actual plaintiffs versus extending that relief to non-parties across the entire country.
The Technical Details:
The Court ruled that preliminary injunctions must be limited to providing relief only to the plaintiffs with standing to sue. District courts can no longer issue orders that automatically protect everyone nationwide from allegedly unconstitutional government actions.
However, the majority noted that nationwide relief can still be obtained through:
Properly certified class action lawsuits under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23
Cases where nationwide relief is necessary to provide "complete relief" to the specific plaintiffs
The Court granted a "partial stay" of the existing injunctions, meaning Trump's birthright citizenship order will take effect in 30 days, but only in the 28 states that haven't challenged it. The 22 states that sued will remain protected by their individual court orders.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the three liberal justices in dissent, called it "a travesty for the rule of law" and warned that "no right is safe in the new legal regime the court creates."
How We Got the 14th Amendment
Here's what they don't want you to remember: We've been here before.
In 1857, the Supreme Court decided Dred Scott v. Sandford, one of the most shameful decisions in American history. They ruled that Black people, whether enslaved or free, could never be American citizens. Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote that Black people "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."
The 14th Amendment was specifically created after the Civil War to erase that finding and expand citizenship to anyone born in the United States. It declared: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
It ended the legal fiction that some people born on American soil didn't belong here, and it was supposed to permanently.
Same Arguments, Different Century
In 1898, the Supreme Court faced this exact question again in Wong Kim Ark. Officials argued that a man born in San Francisco's Chinatown wasn't really American because his Chinese parents weren't "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States. The Court disagreed.
For 127 years, that precedent has held. Until now.
Trump's executive order declares that children born to undocumented immigrants or people on temporary visas are not entitled to automatic citizenship. It's the same argument used in 1898 and 1857.
If the government can decide that some people born here don't count as citizens, what's next?
What This Means for Other Rights
The Court gave Trump 30 days before his order takes effect, and it will apply differently depending on where you live. Some states might protect birthright citizenship. Others won't.
We're watching the creation of a two-tiered America where your constitutional rights depend on your state's politics.
This decision "appeared to upend the ability of single federal judges to freeze policies across the country", a tool that has blocked policies from both Democratic and Republican administrations. The courts just lost their power to protect your rights when the government tries to violate the Constitution.
What Trump Can Do Now
Trump celebrated this as a "monumental victory" and said his administration can now "move forward with key elements of his immigration policy without the threat of broad injunctions."
In addition to birthright citizenship, district court judges have used nationwide injunctions to block Trump from "halting the firing of civil servants, the defunding of foreign aid, and the relocation of transgender women in federal prisons to men's housing."
All of those protections just got weaker.
Why This Newsletter Matters Now
I've spent years documenting how America has weaponized citizenship to exclude people, from the 1790 law limiting citizenship to "free white persons" to the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Each time, the excuse was protecting "real Americans," and most people didn't understand what was happening until it was too late.
That's exactly where we are now.
But here's my reality: I can only keep doing this work with your support.
Right now, over 27,000 people read this newsletter, but less than 4% are paid subscribers. With the courts weakened and truth under attack, I need your help to:
📚 Research the legal documents that most people will never see—like the executive orders and court filings that are reshaping our rights
🎥 Create content that connects the dots between past and present, showing how today's attacks echo historical patterns of exclusion
🏫 Visit schools and communities where this history isn't being taught, especially as state legislatures restrict what teachers can say
🔍 Follow developing stories in real-time, tracking how these changes affect real families in real communities
All for the price of a coffee once a month.
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What Happens Next
As Justice Sotomayor warned: "Today, the threat is to birthright citizenship. Tomorrow, a different administration may try to seize firearms from law-abiding citizens or prevent people of certain faiths from gathering to worship."
The Supreme Court just told us that constitutional rights are negotiable.
The best way to fight back? Make sure people understand what's really happening.
That's what this newsletter does. That's why your support matters.
Will you become a paid subscriber today?
Don't think of this as charity. Think of it as investing in the truth when truth is under siege.
They tried to erase Black citizenship in 1857. We fought back with the 14th Amendment. They're trying to erase it again, and we can't let them win.
Oh my goodness just wow 😢this is so sad. What in the world is everyone afraid of 47 in D.C?
They are traitors all for one pathetic monster I hope they suffer like I hope all of the cowards who sold their soul to this piece of 💩. Making people suffer and the country for this 😈 so let them one day feel every thing evil they have done.