The Supreme Court's Next Target: Birthright Citizenship | Elie Mystal
Wajahat Ali
VIDEO:
July 1, 2026
#SupremeCourt
Wajahat Ali
VIDEO:
July 1, 2026
#SupremeCourt
#BirthrightCitizenship #ElieMystal
Is birthright citizenship the Supreme Court's next major constitutional battle? Waj is joined by legal analyst Elie Mystal to examine the legal arguments surrounding the 14th Amendment, recent Supreme Court decisions, and what future rulings could mean for citizenship, executive power, and constitutional law. In this episode, they discuss:
• The constitutional basis for birthright citizenship
• Recent Supreme Court rulings and legal trends
• Executive power and immigration
• The future of the 14th Amendment
• What these developments could mean for the United States
Watch now and join the conversation.
#SupremeCourt
Is birthright citizenship the Supreme Court's next major constitutional battle? Waj is joined by legal analyst Elie Mystal to examine the legal arguments surrounding the 14th Amendment, recent Supreme Court decisions, and what future rulings could mean for citizenship, executive power, and constitutional law. In this episode, they discuss:
• The constitutional basis for birthright citizenship
• Recent Supreme Court rulings and legal trends
• Executive power and immigration
• The future of the 14th Amendment
• What these developments could mean for the United States
Watch now and join the conversation.
#SupremeCourt
#Immigration #News #democracy
thelefthook.substack.com
Birthright Citizenship
Heather Cox Richardson
VIDEO:
July 1, 2026
Letters from an American
June 30, 2026 Trump signed an executive order, on his first day in office, declaring that there was no birthright citizenship, The ACLU and others sued the administration, The Fourteenth Amendment established birthright citizenship, After the Civil War former Confederates denied Black Southerners basic rights, The Republican Congress passed a civil rights bill in 1866 but President Andrew Johnson vetoed it, When Congress wrote the 14th Amendment, it acknowledged that the Constitution had already established citizenship for all persons born or naturalized in the US, The 14th Amendment was challenged in the late 19th century, but the Supreme Court upheld it in 1898, After that, It seemed the law was settled, After Trump issued his executive order, judges all sided against him, and today the current court upheld birthright citizenship, But many have said that the Supreme Court should never have even taken the case, And four of the nine current Supreme Court justices appear to be willing to rewrite the Constitution, MAGA is pressing the administration to step up immigration enforcement in response.
thelefthook.substack.com
Birthright Citizenship
Heather Cox Richardson
VIDEO:
July 1, 2026
Letters from an American
June 30, 2026 Trump signed an executive order, on his first day in office, declaring that there was no birthright citizenship, The ACLU and others sued the administration, The Fourteenth Amendment established birthright citizenship, After the Civil War former Confederates denied Black Southerners basic rights, The Republican Congress passed a civil rights bill in 1866 but President Andrew Johnson vetoed it, When Congress wrote the 14th Amendment, it acknowledged that the Constitution had already established citizenship for all persons born or naturalized in the US, The 14th Amendment was challenged in the late 19th century, but the Supreme Court upheld it in 1898, After that, It seemed the law was settled, After Trump issued his executive order, judges all sided against him, and today the current court upheld birthright citizenship, But many have said that the Supreme Court should never have even taken the case, And four of the nine current Supreme Court justices appear to be willing to rewrite the Constitution, MAGA is pressing the administration to step up immigration enforcement in response.
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While liberals offer gauzy tributes and White House fascists engage in ugly chest-thumping, we see the contradictions and conflicts that defined America’s birth reflected in the political and economic realities of today. We are besieged by a presidential administration focused on maintaining white power and an oligarchy that has amassed otherworldly sums of money while ordinary Americans struggle to afford food, rent, and health care.
In Issue No. 11, Hammer & Hope turns a critical eye on the United States’ 250th birthday. Robin D. G. Kelley examines Black radicals’ relationship to the Declaration of Independence. Nancy MacLean shows how the Trump administration’s racist crusade is designed to tear down the last vestiges of the civil rights movement’s signal achievement: the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And Brian Jones explains that the teaching of Black history is “a record of struggles to achieve genuine equality and justice” — and so a fundamental threat not only to the current administration but to any authoritarian project.
These stories and others represent our mission to bring our readers the best thinking and writing from the left. If you believe in this work and want to help pay the writers, editors, and artists who make it possible, become a member today.
In Issue No. 11, Hammer & Hope turns a critical eye on the United States’ 250th birthday. Robin D. G. Kelley examines Black radicals’ relationship to the Declaration of Independence. Nancy MacLean shows how the Trump administration’s racist crusade is designed to tear down the last vestiges of the civil rights movement’s signal achievement: the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And Brian Jones explains that the teaching of Black history is “a record of struggles to achieve genuine equality and justice” — and so a fundamental threat not only to the current administration but to any authoritarian project.
These stories and others represent our mission to bring our readers the best thinking and writing from the left. If you believe in this work and want to help pay the writers, editors, and artists who make it possible, become a member today.
Billie Carter-Rankin for Hammer & Hope. Photograph via Wisconsin Historical Society.
As the world receives its first trillionaire — a white man born in South Africa who amplified calls for a pogrom against immigrants in Belfast the same week as his company’s IPO — our current oligarchy feels much like a realization of the contradiction that defined America’s birth. We are besieged by a ruling class focused on maintaining white power.
And they are using every tool at their disposal to try to do so. They want the antidiscrimination measures of the past 60 years shredded. They want an end to Black voting rights. They want an end to abortion and women’s control of their own bodies. They want an end to immigration. They want war and bloodshed. They revel in racism. They are the culmination of 250 years of white supremacy and violence.
They represent one tradition in the United States. But there is another, found in 250 years of resistance, rebellion, and refusal. One that continues today — because it must. And why? Frederick Douglass made it plain: “There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.
“Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.”
In this issue Robin D. G. Kelley gives voice to Black women and men revolutionaries like David Walker, who asked white readers in his 1829 pamphlet, Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World: “Do you understand your own language? Hear your language, proclaimed to the world, July 4th, 1776. … Compare your own language … extracted from your Declaration of Independence, with your cruelties and murders inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers and yourselves on our fathers and on us — men who have never given your fathers or you the least provocation!!!!!!” He urged white people to read the text with greater care, especially the passage asserting that it is both the right and the duty of oppressed people “to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.”
For centuries communities have been organizing to safeguard themselves from authoritarian control and violence. That work continues today, even without the celebration it is due. The true inheritance of this 250-year experiment is the unwavering will of the people.
Our thanks to the people and organizations who made it possible for us to publish Issue No. 11:
Billy Brennan, Dana Castillo, Erin Crum, Vicky Fontenelle, Jaime Fuller, Kris Leja, Will Tavlin, Eamon Whalen, Allyson Winburn, Critical Minded, and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
HAMMER & HOPE & YOU
PLEASE DONATE MONTHLY
Hammer & Hope is free to read. Sign up for our mailing list, follow us on Instagram, and click here to download this article.
As the world receives its first trillionaire — a white man born in South Africa who amplified calls for a pogrom against immigrants in Belfast the same week as his company’s IPO — our current oligarchy feels much like a realization of the contradiction that defined America’s birth. We are besieged by a ruling class focused on maintaining white power.
And they are using every tool at their disposal to try to do so. They want the antidiscrimination measures of the past 60 years shredded. They want an end to Black voting rights. They want an end to abortion and women’s control of their own bodies. They want an end to immigration. They want war and bloodshed. They revel in racism. They are the culmination of 250 years of white supremacy and violence.
They represent one tradition in the United States. But there is another, found in 250 years of resistance, rebellion, and refusal. One that continues today — because it must. And why? Frederick Douglass made it plain: “There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.
“Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.”
In this issue Robin D. G. Kelley gives voice to Black women and men revolutionaries like David Walker, who asked white readers in his 1829 pamphlet, Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World: “Do you understand your own language? Hear your language, proclaimed to the world, July 4th, 1776. … Compare your own language … extracted from your Declaration of Independence, with your cruelties and murders inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers and yourselves on our fathers and on us — men who have never given your fathers or you the least provocation!!!!!!” He urged white people to read the text with greater care, especially the passage asserting that it is both the right and the duty of oppressed people “to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.”
For centuries communities have been organizing to safeguard themselves from authoritarian control and violence. That work continues today, even without the celebration it is due. The true inheritance of this 250-year experiment is the unwavering will of the people.
Our thanks to the people and organizations who made it possible for us to publish Issue No. 11:
Billy Brennan, Dana Castillo, Erin Crum, Vicky Fontenelle, Jaime Fuller, Kris Leja, Will Tavlin, Eamon Whalen, Allyson Winburn, Critical Minded, and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
HAMMER & HOPE & YOU
PLEASE DONATE MONTHLY
Hammer & Hope is free to read. Sign up for our mailing list, follow us on Instagram, and click here to download this article.