Supreme Court rulings live: Justices agree to hear challenge to assault rifle bans after upholding birthright citizenship

“With a 6-3 judgment from the U.S. Supreme Court, President Trump suffered a stunning loss on a signature order he signed on day one of his presidency,” Anthony Romero, the executive director of the ACLU, said.

“This was one of the most important constitutional cases of the past 100 years. The president bet his legacy trying to secure this policy win — even attending the argument in person — and he lost. It was especially gratifying that the majority opinion was authored by Chief Justice Roberts, and that Trump appointees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett agreed with the decision to strike down the order.”

Next term, the Supreme Court justices will hear two gun-related cases, this time concerning bans on semi-automatic-style rifles such as AR-15s.

The cases, stemming from challenges to laws in Illinois and Connecticut, argue that banning assault-style rifles infringes on the Second Amendment.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the majority opinion in the birthright citizenship case,

Thomas argued that the Citizenship Clause of the Constitution was meant only to grant citizenship to Black Americans domiciled in the United States, but who had been denied citizenship in Dred Scott v. Stanford.

He said it was not meant to extend to temporary visitors or undocumented immigrants.

“The Court adds to the sad history of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed and understood to secure equal rights for the freed blacks but has instead been repurposed for political projects that the Reconstruction Congress did not support,” Thomas wrote.

In a separate dissent, Alito argued the Court should have used the ruling to rein in illegal immigration.

“We should not adopt an erroneous interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment simply out of fear of the consequences of “rocking the boat” or as a reaction to current immigration policy,” Alito wrote.

In another dissent, Gorusch argued the court should have ruled narrowly, allowing some of Trump’s executive order to apply to the children of foreigners who are in the U.S. temporarily.

Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who has closely aligned his policies with Trump, said Tuesday that the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold birthright citizenship was “a major defeat.”

The Florida governor lamented that the decision was “substantive,” rather than “procedural” – meaning it is a firm decision that would require much more to overrule.

“Will need either a constitutional amendment or a future court to overrule this,” DeSantis said Tuesday.

“As a community that found refuge in this country as immigrants, Jews know that the promise of belonging — the principle that if you are born here, you are from here — is a constitutional bedrock that has allowed our community, and so many others, to thrive in safety for generations,” Amy Spitalnick the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs said in a statement.

“As this administration continues to target immigrants and refugees with dehumanizing and draconian policies and bigotry, we will keep fighting to ensure that every human life is treated with dignity and that this country lives up to its highest ideals.”

Lawyers representing transgender athletes, who fought state laws barring their clients from participating on school sports teams, called the Supreme Court’s ruling “deeply harmful” and “heartbreaking.”

“This ruling is deeply harmful for transgender women and girls who only asked for the ability to participate in sports with their peers,” Sasha Buchert, the Senior Attorney and Director of the Non-Binary and Transgender Rights Project, for Lambda Legal said.

Burchert said, “Countless studies have demonstrated the myriad benefits that come with participation in team sports. Now, one population, transgender youth and collegians, are targeted for specific and baseless discrimination.”

“This is a heartbreaking ruling for our clients and transgender girls like them who’ve asked for nothing more than the same opportunities afforded to their peers.” said Joshua Block, Senior Counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project.

“It is profoundly unfair to deny a young person the benefits of teamwork and dedication because of who they are,” said Kelly O’Neill, Legal Voice’s Idaho attorney. “We should be removing barriers for girls and women in sports, not creating new ones.”

NPR has retracted an apparently erroneous report that a sitting Supreme Court justice has retired, shortly after the final decision of this year’s term.

A public information officer for the court has stressed that no such announcements have been made. An editor’s note on the story now states that the outlet “erroneously published” the report.

President Donald Trump celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down campaign spending limits for political parties in coordination with individual campaigns.

“The Supreme Court just took restrictions off political spending! A BIG WIN FOR REPUBLICANS and, more importantly, The First Amendment!” Trump wrote.

“This is an historic victory for immigrant families, constitutional rights, and the principle that every child born in this country belongs in this country,” We Are CASA, a Latino immigrant advocacy group said Tuesdsay.

“The Trump administration’s attempt to deny citizenship to United States-born children, threaten generations of children with legal uncertainty, and overturn more than a century of settled constitutional law has failed.”

“The Supreme Court has reaffirmed what generations of children and families have known to be true: citizenship is a constitutional guarantee. No President has the authority to unilaterally rewrite the Constitution or decide which babies count as citizens and which do not.”