birthright citizenship order<\/a>, which Trump signed on Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second term, is part of his Republican administration\u2019s broad immigration crackdown.<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Trump plans to be in attendance. He will be the first sitting president to attend oral arguments at the nation\u2019s highest court.<\/p>\n
Every lower court to have considered the issue has found the order illegal and prevented it from taking effect. A definitive ruling by the nation\u2019s highest court is expected by early summer.<\/p>\n
Former, future and almost presidents have been to and served on Supreme Court<\/p>\n
Way back in 1841, former President John Quincy Adams represented a shipload of African men and women who had been sold into slavery in the famous Amistad case.<\/p>\n
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Former President William Howard Taft became chief justice nearly eight years after leaving the White House in 1913. Charles Evans Hughes left the Supreme Court for a presidential run in 1912, which he nearly won, then returned to the court in 1930 as chief justice.<\/p>\n
In 1966, Richard Nixon argued his only Supreme Court case, which he lost.<\/p>\n
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The states have taken sides<\/p>\n
Twenty-four Democratic state attorneys general put out a statement Wednesday morning saying they\u2019re \u201cproud to lead the fight against this unlawful order.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Democratic attorneys general have sued the Trump administration scores of times, the plaintiffs in this case are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups.<\/p>\n
The Democratic attorneys filed court papers supporting their position. Twenty-five of their Republican counterparts filed a friend-of-the-court brief backing the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
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The only state sitting this one out is New Hampshire.<\/p>\n
If the court upholds Trump\u2019s order, who would be affected?<\/p>\n
More than 250,000 babies born in the U.S. each year would not be citizens, according to research from the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University\u2019s Population Research Institute.<\/p>\n
The order would only apply going forward, the administration has said. But opponents have said a court ruling in Trump\u2019s favor could pave the way for a later effort to take away citizenship from people who were born to parents who were not themselves U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n
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Trump\u2019s last time at the court was a ceremonial visit in 2018<\/p>\n
The president and first lady Melania Trump showed up for the court ritual marking the arrival of a new justice following the confirmations of Justice Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Justice Brett Kavanaugh a year later.<\/p>\n
The ceremony for Trump\u2019s third appointee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, was delayed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and Trump, who was no longer in office, did not attend.<\/p>\n
True to form, a Trump appearance would break with longstanding norms<\/p>\n
Traditionally the president has avoided attending arguments to maintain distance between the government branches \u2014 since the executive officer\u2019s presence is seen by many as a way to pressure the independent court to rule in their favor.<\/p>\n
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Given the unusual nature of it all \u2014 Trump\u2019s presence in the courtroom spotlights how high the stakes are for him, as the court\u2019s decision will have massive consequences on his longstanding promise to crack down on immigration.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the first time Trump has considered showing up for a high court hearing<\/p>\n
Last year, Trump said that he badly wanted to attend a hearing on whether he overstepped federal law with his sweeping tariffs, but he decided against it, saying it would have been a distraction.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s presence unlikely to sway the court, expert says<\/p>\n
Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor at UCLA, told the The Associated Press that Trump\u2019s attending SCOTUS oral arguments signals how important the president views this case.<\/p>\n
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However, Trump\u2019s presence \u201cis unlikely to sway the justices,\u201d Winkler said, adding that the SCOTUS justices \u201cpride themselves in their independence, even if some agree with much of Trump\u2019s agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fanfare of Trump being in the courtroom will make for a different experience for the justices themselves, however, as \u201cTrump\u2019s presence will make the atmosphere a little bit more circus-like,\u201d Winkler said.<\/p>\n
Top Trump lawyer argues against ACLU\u2019s legal director<\/p>\n
Solicitor General D. John Sauer is making his ninth Supreme Court argument and second in as many weeks. Sauer\u2019s biggest win to date was the presidential immunity decision that spared Trump from being tried for his effort to overturn the 2020 election.<\/p>\n
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Sauer was a Supreme Court law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia early in his legal career.<\/p>\n
ACLU legal director Cecillia Wang, the child of Chinese immigrants, is presenting her second argument to the Supreme Court. In the first Trump administration, a 5-4 conservative majority ruled against Wang\u2019s clients in another immigration case.<\/p>\n
Alito celebrates his 76th birthday on the bench<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not an April Fool\u2019s joke. Alito was born this day in 1950. Only Thomas, who turns 78 in June, is older than Alito among the nine justices.<\/p>\n
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Justice Clarence Thomas goes first<\/p>\n
In the post-pandemic era, the other justices allow the 77-year-old Thomas, the longest-serving member of the court, to pose a question or two before the free-for-all begins.<\/p>\n
In a second round of questioning, the justices ask questions in order of seniority. Chief Justice John Roberts, whose center chair makes him the most senior, gets the first crack.<\/p>\n
Arguments are likely to exceed the allotted hour<\/p>\n
The justices have routinely gone beyond the allotted time since returning to the courtroom following the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
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Livestream begins a few minutes after 10 a.m., Eastern time<\/p>\n
A buzzer and the court marshal\u2019s cry, \u201cAll rise,\u201d signal the justices\u2019 entrance from behind red curtains. The livestream won\u2019t kick in for several minutes, until after the ceremonial swearing-in of lawyers to the Supreme Court bar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People arrive to walk inside the U.S. Supreme Court, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 1, 2026.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[89044,89045,89043,89046,89041,32533,145,89040,26166,71699,89047,52329,23681,59373,59371,59372,61261,61262,61150,82,84,83,89039,89042],"class_list":["post-230245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-adam-winkler","tag-amy-coney-barrett","tag-antonin-scalia","tag-brett-kavanaugh","tag-charles-evans-hughes","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-john-quincy-adams","tag-john-roberts","tag-melania-trump","tag-neil-gorsuch","tag-new-hampshire","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","tag-product-32520-ap-online-other-u-s-government-news","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-richard-nixon","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-supreme-court-trump-birthright-citizenship","tag-william-howard-taft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}