'Hoo boy!' Supreme Court observers pounce as Kagan 'rips' Trump lawyer 'to shreds'
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan was relentless in her questioning of U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer Thursday as he presented the Trump administration argument to end birthright citizenship in the United States.
As part of his extreme immigration policy, President Donald Trump issued an executive order at the start of his second term proclaiming that children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants are not citizens.
Three federal judges ruled the order unconstitutional, which lead to the Supreme Court case.
Before the oral arguments, Trump claimed on Truth Social, "Birthright Citizenship is about the babies of slaves" and not about "people pouring into our Country from all over South America, and the rest of the World."
Kagan asked Sauer if "every single person" affected by Trump's executive order will have to "bring their own suit" before the court. After he attempted an answer, Kagan told Sauer to put his main argument aside, "because, I got to tell you, that does not fill me with great confidence. How else are we going to get to the right result here, which is on my assumption that the [executive order] is illegal?"
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"That would be a profoundly wrong result," Sauer answered, before diving into the "1789 Judiciary Act."
"I mean, that's a lot of words," Kagan said, "and I don't have an answer for if one thinks — and, you know, look. There are all kinds of abuses of nationwide injunctions. But I think that the question that this case presents is that if one thinks that, it's quite clear that the [executive order] is illegal, how does one get to that result? In what time frame on your set of rules without the possibility of a nationwide injunction?"
Sauer was mid-sentence talking about nationwide injunctions, when Justice Amy Coney Barrett interrupted.
"Are you really going to answer Justice Kagan by saying, there's no way to do this expeditiously?"
Later, Kagan declared, "I'm suggesting that in a case in which the government is losing constantly… It's up to you to decide whether to take this case to us. If I were in your shoes, there is no way I'd approach the Supreme Court with this case."
Court observers on social media were stunned by the way the administration's argument was tanking.
Journalist Ed Krassenstein posted, "In the Trump administration's SCOTUS hearing where they are trying to overturn Birthright Citizenship, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan calls out and criticizes the Trump administration for not respecting court decisions. We are a nation of laws! Don’t forget that!"
Meanwhile, @mmpadellan , with 1.3 million followers wrote, "Justice Kagan is ripping this dude Sauer to shreds in this Birthright Citizenship case, hoo boy!"