CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig stunned CNN anchor Kate Bolduan on Monday by explaining that states could have conflicting birthright citizenship laws following the Supreme Court’s ruling on the limits of nationwide injunctions.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Friday that lower courts overstepped their authority by halting President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship restrictions nationwide. Honig, on “CNN News Central,” said the ruling would cause chaos because the Supreme Court did not address the constitutionality of the birthright citizenship limits.
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“Everyone thought, ‘But wait a second, this was about birthright citizenship,’ right? So the Supreme Court did not rule on the substance of that constitutional question that the president has raised on birthright citizenship,” Bolduan said. “How do you see that legal fight now playing out?”
“Chaotically. Yes, they have not answered the birthright citizenship question,” Honig said. “We could end up in a scenario — there are 22 states that have sued to challenge Trump’s effort to limit birthright — it could be that we have different laws in those 22 states or different judicial holds.”
Bolduan appeared surprised by this possibility.
“Really!?” she exclaimed. “22 different rules on birthright citizenship in 22 different states?”
“Yes, well we could have one set of rules in the 22 states that have sued, another set of rules in the 28 states that have not sued,” Honig clarified.
Bolduan described the possible scenario as “wild.” Honig agreed.
“That is wild. And that’s why this is going to be so chaotic. Ultimately, the Supreme Court is ultimately going to have to decide this, hopefully sooner than later. I actually think they’re going to strike down Donald Trump’s effort to limit birthright citizenship,” he said. “But until they do, we’re going to be in this great unknown. And they’re going to be picking through the rubble here, really, piece by piece. But yeah, we could have a scenario where a child born in New Jersey is a citizen, a child born across the river in Pennsylvania is not a citizen under the exact same circumstances.”
Trump’s Jan. 20 “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship” executive order ends guaranteed citizenship for children of illegal aliens or migrants on temporary visas.
The Trump administration had appealed three lower court orders barring the birthright citizenship order from taking effect in April, asking the Supreme Court to limit the power of district court judges to halt policies nationwide through universal injunctions.
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