'Ignoring my question': Supreme Court Justices tear into Trump's DOJ lawyer

Solicitor General D. John Sauer was placed under fire from Supreme Court Justices Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan at the so-called “birthright citizenship” hearing.

“You said to us we'd have to wait until there was a final judgment,” Sotomayor said. “You're not sure you would respect the judgment of every circuit. You're not sure that you would respect even a final judgment of the Supreme Court.”

Sauer replied, “I don't think there's a, so to speak, really, really unconstitutional exception to the strictures of article three or the scope of equitable authority. And the court should not recognize one, because what we see, not just in this case, but in the 39 others, is that the district courts who issue these injunctions all passionately disagree with the thing that's being challenged in that.”

Justice Kagan then pressed, “Let's assume that you lose in the lower courts pretty uniformly as you have been losing on this issue, and that you never take this question to us.”

She added, “I noticed that you didn't take the substantive question to us. You only took the nationwide injunction question to us. Why wouldn't you take the substantive question to us?”

Pressing Sauer more Kagan added, “You're losing a bunch of cases. This guy over here, this woman over here, you know, they'll have to be treated as citizens, but nobody else will. Why would you ever take this case to us?”

Sauer attempted to answer but was swiftly cut off.

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“You're ignoring the import of my question,” Kagan said. “I'm suggesting that in a case in which the government is losing constantly, there's nobody else who's going to appeal. They're winning. It's up to you to decide whether to take this case to us.”

She added, “If I were in your shoes, there is no way I'd approach the Supreme Court with this case. So you just keep on losing in the lower courts, and what's supposed to happen to prevent that?”

The Justices are hearing arguments on the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States.

Sauer’s argument is that the 14th Amendment was for the children of slaves and not undocumented migrants.

Watch the full exchange here or below.

- YouTubeyoutu.be