Trump v Supreme Court: The battle over birthright citizenship
4/1/202635 min
It was an historic day in the Supreme Court on Wednesday as it began hearing arguments on Donald Trump’s effort to ban birthright citizenship. The president began his second term in office by signing an executive order to end automatic citizenship for babies born in the U.S to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily, an order which has now made its way to the highest court in the land.
In a sign of the case’s importance to Donald Trump, he became the first ever sitting president to personally attend oral arguments in the chamber on Wednesday.
In today’s episode, Justin and Sumi assess how the Supreme Court will consider the arguments over citizenship, how much of an obstacle the court is proving for Trump’s agenda, and why the Republican Party has become increasingly divided more broadly on the subject of immigration.
HOSTS: • Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter • Sumi Somaskanda, BBC chief presenter
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This episode was made by George Dabby with Alix Pickles. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is George Dabby. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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Justin Webb· Host1:14
It's a central question. Who are we? It's a question you can ask in any nation in the world, and the answer will be subtly different. For the United States, the answer until recently was pretty clear.