Normally, I send out one newsletter a day. But today calls for a breaking news edition.
You may have seen the headlines: “Trump Gets Win in Birthright Citizenship Case.”
That is not accurate.
What the Supreme Court actually did was far more dangerous. It ruled that federal district judges can no longer issue nationwide injunctions. That might sound technical, but it is a devastating blow to judicial power and civil rights. It sets the stage for authoritarianism in the most legal of disguises.
What Nationwide Injunctions Do
In the past, when a federal judge found that a law or executive action was unconstitutional, they could issue an injunction to stop it from being enforced across the country. The goal was to protect not just one person, but everyone who might be harmed by the same unconstitutional policy.
This new decision changes everything. Now, each individual would have to bring their own lawsuit. That is expensive. It is confusing. And it would overwhelm the court system.
This means people will suffer even when courts agree the policy is unconstitutional, simply because they cannot afford to bring a case.
What This Means for Birthright Citizenship
The Court has not yet ruled on the actual issue of birthright citizenship. But this context matters deeply.
Birthright citizenship is at the core of Black American identity. It was created to ensure that formerly enslaved people would be recognized as citizens. My own great-great-great-grandparents needed that legal protection to be recognized as Americans.
There are people in this country who have never accepted that outcome. They believe this country should belong only to them. They see birthright citizenship as the moment they lost control. And they have spent generations trying to undo it.
That is what this is really about.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Dissent
Justice Jackson saw what was happening. She wrote:
“The Court’s decision to permit the Executive to violate the Constitution with respect to anyone who has not yet sued is an existential threat to the rule of law.”
She is absolutely right.
And how did Justice Amy Coney Barrett respond?
She refused to even address Justice Jackson’s dissent. She wrote that it was not worth discussing.
That is not just disrespect. It is the erasure of an entire viewpoint grounded in legal reasoning and lived experience, and it reflects something I wrote about earlier this week.
There is a class of white women who do not see themselves as part of the broader fight for civil rights. They do not connect their opportunities to the blood, sacrifice, and labor of Black Americans. They believe they earned their place alone.
Barrett is one of them. She is only on the Court because of the civil rights movement that opened doors for women. She now uses her power to slam those doors shut.
The Pattern Is Clear
I also wrote this week about the young law student in Florida who won an award for writing a paper arguing that Black and Brown people should lose voting rights and be given ten years to leave the country or face violence.
He felt confident enough to write that because this moment in history is rewarding those views, literally, he won an award!
Today’s decision from the Court validates the core of his argument. It creates the conditions for racial removal and disenfranchisement. It limits the ability of the judiciary to stop the worst abuses of power.
This is not theoretical. This is happening.
History Is Repeating
In my earlier newsletter about the Fugitive Slave Acts, I showed how legal systems were used to kidnap free Black people in the North and send them into slavery in the South.
That was not just history. That was a blueprint.
Today, we see the same tactics used in ICE raids. Green card holders. People with legal status. No criminal records. Disappeared. Deported. Detained.
The pattern has returned.
What We Must Do Now
First, we need to flood the courts with cases. If they want to make it harder, then we bring more. Thousands of them. We create legal defense funds. We support class members as individuals.
Second, we must organize on a scale not seen since the Civil Rights Movement. We must use general strikes, shutting down the country in protest.
Third, we must vote. In every conversation, every community meeting, every cousin and neighbor, we must make plain in plain language what is at stake, ending up in a foreign jail as an American citizen, being shot for protesting, having no legal recourse for workplace discrimination, the financial impact of the cuts in the Big STUPID bill. This midterm cannot be another quiet cycle. It has to be a turning point.
Fourth, we must push for a reconfiguration of the Court. It is compromised, and the legitimacy of the judiciary has collapsed. The only way to restore balance is to expand the Court.
Final Thoughts
When Trump first ran, I warned people that the Supreme Court was the real danger. Many brushed it off. But here we are.
Democracy is not drifting. It is breaking.
This decision impacts every constitutional right, every civil protection, and every community that depends on judicial review.
I am calling this what it is. A breaking point.
So yes, I am sending a second newsletter today. Because this moment demands it.
Stay aware. Stay active. Stay ready.
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