After the ruling, the right suddenly sounds like the left
By: Dace Potas
USA Today
On June 30, [2026] the Supreme Court upheld the understanding of birthright citizenship hat has been in place for more than a century.
.....
"Citizenship then and now, was the right to have rights - to freely participate in our political community," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. "The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to 'every free-born person in this land.' We keep that promise today." [06/30/2026]
..... The result was expected. What I didn't expect was how closely the response from the decision's critics would resemble the left's when Democrats don't get their way at the court.
..... These doomsday predictions have hardened into calls for extraordinary responses - ones hat would upend our republican from of government. Those blaming the Supreme Court for America's immigration policy are aiming at the wrong target.
..... Just because the other two branches won't do their job doesn't mean the Supreme Court should do it for them.
..... The right's critics respond with a meltdown that could pass for the left's after a decision doesn't go its way.
..... "I at least got to live for 40 years in a country that looks and functions something like America," said Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire.
..... Walsh ignores the fact that America had birthright citizenship for the entire time he's been alive - and for more than a century before that.
..... Apocalyptically and indefensibly bad," said Mollie Ziegher Hemingway, editor in chief of The Federalist. "very, very difficult to see where to go from here."
.....
In their world, the apocalypse arrives in the from of a court decision that affirms the status quo as it has existed for more than 150 years.
..... Sean Davis, CEO of that same publication, offers his won voice of reason: "Pack the court," "require sterilization of all foreign visitors prior to entry" or pursue "dissolution of the Union."
..... "This is the most illegitimate ruling the court has made since Roe, and we must continue to challenge it, fight it, and do everything we can legislatively to minimize its impact until we can overturn it," said Megan Basham of the Daily Wire. "If the court is going to legislate and try to overcome the will of the people, then I'm sorry, but the court has made itself illegitimate, and it must be defeated."
..... Instead of accepting an expected loss with grace, this crowd is melting down because the Supreme Court didn't fix the problem for them - exactly the reaction the left has when court decisions don't go their way, whether on mitigation, gun rights, debt cancellation, abortion or any other charged issue.
..... While the reaction hasn't yet escalated to the extremes after Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 - an assassination attempt, justices harassed outside their own homes - the hyperbole is straight out of the left's playbook.
.....
Calling the Supreme Court "illegitimate" has become a favorite response on the left whenever a ruling doesn't go its way. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, called the court "illegitimate" in April [2026] after it struck down a racial gerrymander in congressional redistrict. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, and countless other progressives pushed a movement to "expand the court" after Roe was overturned -a movement that's still alive today.
.....
Democrats have screeched about Justice Amy Coney Barrett. after the June 30 [2026] ruling, prominent voice on there right called Barrett a "DEIhire" and counted her among "rouge, activist judges," while social media served up far worse.
..... It's
the same reflex the far left shows whenever ruling doesn't go its way. Rather than make legal arguments or mount a real political response, the widespread reaction has simply been to whine.
..... Birthright citizenship odes pose real challenges for the country, and I'd support a constitutional amendment narrowing it to exclude "birth tourists" and the children of illegal immigrants.
..... When you lose me is the idea that
the Supreme Court should usurp that authority because a constitutional amendment is too hard to pass or because Congress can't be trusted to govern. I'm not reedy to give up on our constitutional structure the way these people have.
.....
The blame they're laying at the Supreme Court door is misplaced. Congress and the presidency are the two institutions responsible for the mess we're in on immigration. The courts' job is to say what the law is, and that's exactly what the justices did here. Deciding policy instead would turn them into legislators.
.....
It's true that without a constitutional amendment, birthright citizenship remains intact - through Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested Congress could narrow it by statute - and a constitutional amendment is a high bar to clear.
..... Still congress and the president can do plenty short of that: tighten border security, change visa requirements and increase domestic immigration enforcement. The court's decision doesn't let us change the incentive to come here illegally, but it leaves us fully capable of making illegal entry far harder, and far more likely to end in getting caught.
..... Birthright citizenship is the law of the land.
..... those who disagree with it should pursue legitimate avenues of change - a constitutional amendment, congressional action - rather than raze our Republican structure of governance to get there faster.
..... Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for USA Today and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.