Raskin Claims SCOTUS Ruling Means a Loss for Trump on Birthright Citizenship

Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) claimed Friday on CNN’s “Inside Politics” that President Donald Trump “doesn’t understand” the Supreme Court ruling that a single judge cannot block a presidential order is a procedural win, foreshadowing a win on the substance of the case.

Raskin said, “It’s certainly an expansion of executive power by virtue of the interpretation of the Judiciary Act of 1789, limiting the equitable jurisdiction of each individual court. But I think Donald Trump doesn’t understand what’s just happened because four different federal courts have struck down his attempts to nullify constitutional birthright citizenship. Two judges appointed by Republicans Reagan and Bush, two judges appointed by Democrats Obama and Biden. Their holdings stay within their district courts, but the nationwide implications have now been reduced because of this order, with the court saying that it’s too much of an extrapolation from the power that Congress gave to federal courts in 1789. All right, fine. That means now that people are going to go out and file nationwide class action suits, which are still allowed, you can bring it as a class action, or they’ll bring suits across the country.”

He added, “I mean, in a certain sense, the universal jurisdiction that had been extended by these courts saved Donald Trump from a huge, blistering, continuing political defeat because the whole country is against him on his stupid order trying to nullify the first sentence of the 14th Amendment, which says all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States. It’s plain as day, and the Supreme Court, the conservative court, trying to soothe this political ego, says, ‘Oh, well, we’ll give you a procedural win on the equitable power of district courts.’ But he’s going to continue to lose on the substance, and he’s going to lose on the substance when it goes up to the Supreme Court. That’s probably one reason they gave it to Amy Coney Barrett to write the procedural meaning for the president.”

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