Serious
Baby Talk
Each year, women deliver approximately 3.6 million new lives onto American soil. An estimated 150,000 of those babies come from the wombs of women not citizens of this country.
Executive Overreach. On 20 Jan 25, the infamous Day One of his second term in high office, Donald John Trump took 48 executive actions. Twenty-six were Executive Orders (EOs). Each was and is subject to judicial review and may be overturned if lacking support by statute or the Constitution. Executive Order 14160 carried the grand and totally misleading title of “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.” It attempted to redefine and limit birthright citizenship as set forth and protected under the 14th Amendment. It specifically targeted children born in the United States to non-citizen parents.
It identified the circumstances in which a person born in the United States is not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” and is thus not recognized as an American citizen.
A Howl of Protest. The order was quickly blocked by multiple universal preliminary injunctions issued by district court judges.[4] In addition to the three cases consolidated into Trump v. CASA, the executive order was also blocked by Judge Joseph Normand Laplante in New Hampshire Indonesian Community Support v. Trump.[5] The administration complained to the Supreme Court that each injunction was judicial overreach. The Department of Trump Justice argued that lower-court judges should not be allowed to block a contested policy broadly. That relief should reach only the actual plaintiffs and their specific complaint.
A Partisan Opinion. Neither side of the dispute briefed the Supreme Court justices on the constitutionality of Executive Order 14160.[3] And the high court was happy to duck the issue. It took the case under consideration on a single, limited point: “Can a district court issue a nationwide (universal) injunction that blocks enforcement of a federal executive order beyond the specific parties involved in the lawsuit?”
Here is the court’s summary of the issue in Trump v. CASA.
“The plaintiffs allege that the Executive Order violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, §1, and §201 of the Nationality Act of 1940. In each case, the District Court entered a “universal injunction”—an injunction barring executive officials from applying the Executive Order to anyone, not just the plaintiffs. And in each case, the Court of Appeals denied the Government’s request to stay the sweeping relief. The Government argues that the District Courts lacked equitable authority to impose universal relief and has filed three nearly identical emergency applications seeking partial stays to limit the preliminary injunctions to the plaintiffs in each case. The applications do not raise—and thus the Court does not address—the question whether the Executive Order violates the Citizenship Clause or Nationality Act. Instead, the issue the Court decides is whether, under the Judiciary Act of 1789, federal courts have equitable authority to issue universal injunctions.” (Emphasis added.)
The case was argued on 15 May 25. The court decided its opinion under the Judiciary Act of 1789 in favor of the administration in a 6-3 vote announced on 27 June 25.
The court held that Universal injunctions likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has given to federal courts. (Emphasis added.) The opinion did not rule out other court orders that could have nationwide effects, including in class-action lawsuits and those brought by states. Activists immediately filed pleadings through those alternative avenues for relief (class-action and state suits).
Loophole Activism.
1. On Wednesday, 16 July 25, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in Maryland said she would grant class action status on behalf of all children affected by EO 14160 and grant a preliminary injunction blocking it. Boardman said an immediate ruling from her would “promote judicial efficiency and economy because it would enable the Fourth Circuit to consider the merits of a class-wide preliminary injunction sooner rather than later.” But she did not immediately rule, noting a previous decision of hers to block the order was on appeal to the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court and that court would have to return the case to her.
2. On Friday, 18 July 25, the order by U.S. District Judge Joseph Norman LaPlante in New Hampshire (mentioned above and separate from the Trump v CASA opinion) went into effect. It protects the birthright of every single child whose citizenship was called into question by EO 14160. To date, the administration has not asked the high court to grant emergency relief from the injunction.
The Trump administration could still appeal or even ask that LaPlante’s order be narrowed. For now, and until the issue is challenged successfully, the effort to end birthright citizenship for children of parents who are in the U.S. illegally or temporarily cannot take effect. ABC News reports that the Justice Department did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
3. Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston heard arguments from more than a dozen states who say Trump’s birthright citizenship order is blatantly unconstitutional and threatens millions of dollars for essential services. Lawyers for the government asked Sorokin to narrow the reach of his earlier ruling granting a preliminary injunction, arguing it should be “tailored to the States’ purported financial injuries.” The judge did not rule immediately. He seemed to be receptive to arguments from states to keep the injunction in place. The issue is expected to move quickly back to the nation’s highest court.
What’s It All About, America?
We are a nation of immigrants. A beacon of opportunity. This is not a myth or wishful thinking. This is both an historical and present fact. It can wear rose-colored glasses, but it has dirty hands and a racist heart. Democracy is a bare knuckles contest. Its fights rarely are fair. They are, however, routinely useful, with efficacious results. Trump 2.0 is implementing Project 2025 playbook policies and programs that manage to ignore or discount forces older and stronger than authoritarianism.
1. To choke off a new and willing labor supply is worse than foolish. It is economically suicidal.
2. To deny aspiration the chance to innovate its way to success is antithetical to capitalistic imperatives.
Manifesto
We are well advised to welcome every child born on our soil.
To do otherwise is:
1. Illegal under the plain face wording of our constitutional documents;
2. Immoral by most standards of civilized conduct; and,
3. Idiotically short-sighted in terms of national health, wealth, welfare, strength, and vitality.
Anthem
The operations of Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) have gone rogue.
It is not okay for masked and armed agents to approach, question, detain, and deport residents without due process. It is not acceptable to hold detainees without bond.
Babies do not arrive with gang affiliations, armed and ready to overthrow our (or any other) government.
But a really stupid administration can make sure to give hate a reason and room to take root and grow in detainment camps.
Turn away, America. Demand that Congress defund ICE back to levels appropriate to the support of its initial mission statement.
Let us use our persons and our purses everywhere every day in every legal way to support and augment every act of judicial courage and integrity. Let us note and resist illegal ICE activities.
Beyond and after that, let us remember that joy is the poison that kills tyranny.
Joy is the secret sauce of freedom.
Be it.
Let us not be satisfied with making good trouble.
Let us covenant to drive ‘em nuts with a joyful noise.
Rise up.
Stay up.
Protest.
Persist.
Prevail.
Telling the truth. Onward!
Fucking A !