Following oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara, most legal experts agreed that although the Supreme Court will most likely decide against the government, the justices’ treatment of the Trump administration’s position lends it respectability and could ultimately allow Congress to return to the question of birthright citizenship.
Professor Jason Mazzone, constitutional law expert, expected far more aggressive questioning of both sides. Speaking to the New York Times, he said, “I kept having to remind myself that I was listening to a Supreme Court oral argument rather than presentation of papers at an academic conference before a polite audience of scholars willing to engage with whatever eccentric idea was being presented.”
“My conclusion from the content and tone of the argument is that there is a majority — possibly even nine justices — already persuaded that the executive order violates the 1952 statute,” he said, “and so the 14th Amendment argument didn’t need the sort of probing that would be required in another case that turned solely on a constitutional issue.”