The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a major case tied to President Donald Trump’s long-standing attempt to end birthright citizenship in the United States — a move that CNN’s chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid is calling “huge.”
On the surface, the legal fight centers around Trump’s controversial push to eliminate birthright citizenship through executive action. But according to Reid, the real stakes go far beyond that. The justices will also examine whether lower court judges have the authority to block presidential executive orders nationwide — a power that has repeatedly frustrated Trump during his presidency.
“We’ve seen this tension between the White House and the judiciary building, and nothing vexes President Trump more than the fact that lower court judges can, a single judge can block his policy for the entire country,” Reid said Thursday on CNN.
She noted that while the Trump legal team often exudes confidence, they are less certain about how this particular issue will play out at the highest court. “Because for all their bravado, the Trump legal team has about how their policies are going to be upheld by the Supreme Court, this is the one where they sort of tell me, ‘we’re not sure we’re going to win.’”
Reid described the birthright citizenship case as a “Trojan horse” for a much larger constitutional question — the power of federal judges to freeze presidential actions nationwide.
She added that while frustrations with judicial holds on executive actions aren’t new, Trump’s presidency brought them into sharp focus. “No one has had more policies blocked than Trump because he’s issued a record number of executive orders, and he plays at the edges of constitutional power,” Reid explained.
Supporters of judicial authority argue that temporary nationwide injunctions are necessary to pause sweeping national policies while they are reviewed. Critics, like Trump’s team, believe unelected judges should not have the power to derail the president’s agenda with a single ruling.
As the Supreme Court prepares to weigh in, this case could reshape the balance of power between the executive and judicial branches — and set a precedent that could outlast Trump himself.
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