SCOTUS Weighs Birthright Citizenship. Trump Voting Order Under Fire. GA Lawmaker Goes Off

During oral arguments, Supreme Court justices, including conservatives like Chief Justice John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett, expressed significant doubt regarding Donald Trump's executive order to end automatic birthright citizenship. Roberts emphasized the enduring nature of the Constitution despite a 'new world,' while Barrett questioned the legal team's narrow interpretation of citizenship based on parentage (jus sanguinis) over birth location (jus soli, the US standard). The host and guest Ellie Mistal predict a decisive loss for Trump, citing at least 6-7 votes against his position.

Chief Justice John Roberts stated, 'It may be a new world but it's the same constitution.' (23:20) Guest Ellie Mistal predicted, 'Trump lost and Trump lost hard,' counting at least six votes against his position. (25:03)

Ellie Mistal, Justice Correspondent for The Nation, revealed that the Trump administration's core legal argument against birthright citizenship is based on the writings of Alfred P. Morse, a known 19th-century white supremacist lawyer who argued for segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson. Justices Kagan and Roberts referred to these sources as 'unusual' and 'quirky,' indicating their lack of mainstream legal standing.

Ellie Mistal stated, 'Sour's fundamental argument is based on the arguments of a man named a 19th-century man named Alfred P. Morse... the lawyer that argued Plessy v. Ferguson for the side of the segregationist.' (30:24) Kagan called his sources 'unusual' and Roberts called them 'quirky.' (31:41)

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones detailed the collective opposition from Democratic attorneys general against Trump's executive order on mail-in voting, which included proposals like individual barcodes on every envelope. Jones asserted that the order is 'patently illegal' and represents a federal overreach into state-administered elections, aiming to sow 'chaos and confusion' for 'nefarious purposes.' States like Oregon and Arizona have already vowed to sue.

Virginia AG Jay Jones stated, 'Mail voting is safe and it's secure... Anything that the administration says to say, 'Hey, this is to push back on voter fraud' is baseless.' (39:37) He also confirmed, 'all of the Democratic attorneys general are united in lock step that we are going to sue because this executive order is clearly illegal.' (40:17)

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed SB19, known as the 'Roy Johnson Act,' into law, requiring insurance companies to cover prostate cancer screenings at no cost. The bill, named after journalist Roy Johnson and David Mahaney, makes life-saving screenings more accessible for men over 50 and high-risk men over 40. Johnson, a prostate cancer survivor, highlighted the disproportionate impact on Black men (1 in 6 risk, 3x higher mortality) and the bill's bipartisan support, noting insurance companies' preference for early detection over costly advanced treatments.

Roy Johnson explained, 'One in eight men overall will get prostate cancer. If it's black men, it is one in six. And we are three times more likely to die from it than white men.' (1:04:19) He also noted, 'it had the support of the insurance companies here... we'd rather pay for this screening upfront than to have to pay for a more aggressive and more expensive treatment later on.' (1:11:30)

Georgia State Representative Tanya Miller delivered a scathing critique of her white colleagues' support for Confederate monuments, calling their dismissal of history 'celebrated ignorance.' As a 'great-granddaughter of the South,' Miller clarified that the Civil War was fought over chattel slavery, a unique system where people were property, not biblical servitude. She condemned attempts to rewrite history and memorialize those who fought to own other human beings, vowing legal challenges.

Tanya Miller stated, 'The Civil War was fought over slavery. The people who we are memorializing in these Confederate monuments went to war with their own countrymen over slavery, over the right to own another person.' (1:24:25) She also called her colleagues' dismissal 'the celebrated ignorance of your own history.' (1:23:03)