The Supreme Court just heard arguments in not one but two important cases challenging Trump administration policies dealing with illegal aliens. In Wednesday’s case, regarding birthright citizenship, the administration is headed for defeat. In a different case last week, which involves President Donald Trump’s effort to stop illegal aliens from making so many asylum claims, the Court looked ready to hand the government a win.
This disparity is a great sign for the country. Many anti-Trumpsters blast the Court for kowtowing to the president, and they refuse to believe that the Justices might actually be trying to follow the law. But the rule of law is alive and well in America. The Court looks like it’s going to hand the administration one loss and one win in these two cases—and if so, the Court will be right in both.
Let’s start with the barn burner: the birthright citizenship case. On the first day of his second term, Trump issued an executive order purporting to deny citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens and aliens in the U.S. on temporary visas. In oral argument on Wednesday, with the president himself in attendance, Solicitor General John Sauer did a yeoman’s job trying to defend this order, but a majority of the justices did not sound like they bought it.