Trump Lost at the Supreme Court. Now He's Trying to Bully the Justices Into a Do-Over.
The Supreme Court has reversed itself after rehearing a case exactly once in 236 years. Donald Trump thinks he’ll be the second.
Donald Trump lost his birthright citizenship case at the Supreme Court, 6-3, before a bench that includes three justices he appointed himself. His response was not to accept the ruling, and not to pursue the constitutional amendment process that would actually be required to change the law. Instead, he took to Truth Social and demanded the Court rehear the case — “IMMEDIATELY” — calling the decision “absolutely insane” and warning it “will destroy America.”
This is not a legal strategy. It’s a pressure campaign against the highest court in the country.
What the Court actually decided
On June 30, the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. Barbara that children born in the United States to parents who are here unlawfully or on temporary visas are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and are citizens at birth under the 14th Amendment. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Jackson.
“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community,” Roberts wrote.
The ruling struck down Executive Order 14160, which Trump signed at the start of his second term in an attempt to create — for the first time in American history — a category of U.S.-born people who would not automatically receive citizenship. Lower courts blocked the order almost immediately, and even the conservative justices expressed skepticism at oral arguments in April, which Trump attended in person — the first sitting president ever to do so. Trump himself predicted he would lose, telling reporters in May that the justices would “probably rule against me because they seem to like doing that.”
He was right. He lost. And now he wants the same nine justices to un-decide the case.
The math on rehearings is brutal
Georgetown law professor Steve Vladeck, who tracks Supreme Court procedure, has called getting the Court to reverse itself on rehearing “a virtual dead-letter.” The numbers back him up. According to Raw Story, the Court hasn’t agreed to rehear a decided case since 1965, and it has reversed itself after a rehearing exactly once — in 1957. Once. In the Court’s entire history.
The procedural hurdles make Trump’s odds even worse. Supreme Court rules give parties 25 days to petition for a rehearing, which puts Trump’s deadline at July 25. But a rehearing requires the support of at least one justice who voted in the majority — meaning one of the six justices who just ruled against Trump would have to publicly change course. None has shown any sign of doing so. Even Justice Clarence Thomas, whose 91-page dissent questioned whether the majority opinion “will stand the test of time,” has not called for a rehearing.
Former Palm Beach County state attorney Dave Aronberg was blunter, telling Newsweek the request is “a nonstarter.”
The billboard “scam” that wasn’t
Trump’s stated justification for the rehearing demand collapses under the lightest scrutiny. In his Truth Social post, he claimed signs and billboards were going up along the southern border “advertising BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, with ‘Deliveries starting at $4000,’” declaring that “AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP IS NOT FOR SALE!” and that billions would be made through the supposed scheme.
Here’s what actually happened: a public nonprofit hospital in South Texas, Mission Regional Medical Center, ran an advertising campaign about its maternity care pricing. The hospital confirmed the ads were its own, said it shares pricing information the way hospitals across the country do, and stated flatly that it does not support or facilitate any unlawful activity. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has nonetheless ordered a state investigation into the facility.
So the “crime” at the center of Trump’s demand that the Supreme Court reverse a constitutional ruling is a hospital posting its prices.
The pattern
This is what Trump does when institutions tell him no. When courts rule against him, the courts are corrupt. When judges apply the Constitution, the judges are insane. His administration made this same long-shot move just weeks ago, asking the Court to reconsider its refusal to hear his appeal in the E. Jean Carroll case — a request his own court filings acknowledged was unlikely to succeed.
The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, in part to overturn Dred Scott and guarantee that citizenship in this country is a birthright, not an inheritance. The Supreme Court reaffirmed that promise in Wong Kim
Ark in 1898, and it reaffirmed it again two weeks ago. If Trump wants to change it, the Constitution provides a path: two-thirds of both chambers of Congress and three-fourths of the states.
He knows he can’t get that. So instead, he’s shouting at nine justices on social media and hoping the pressure works.
The Constitution isn’t a suggestion, and the Supreme Court doesn’t work for Donald Trump.
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