The Daily Brief — Apr. 1, 2026
The latest on the Supreme Court birthright citizenship case, the Artemis II moon mission, and more
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Birthright Citizenship
A majority of Supreme Court justices today appeared skeptical of President Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship.
The case, Trump v. Barbara, centers on the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” The Trump administration argues the second part of the phrase applies only to those with “political allegiance” to the US, which he says would exclude the children of undocumented parents or those in the country with temporary status. The government’s lawyer, Solicitor General John Sauer, argued that for more than a century, the 14th Amendment has been misinterpreted, and was never meant to cover children born on US soil whose parents were not citizens.
But a majority of the justices — including those appointed by Trump himself — did not appear to be buying the government’s arguments.
Chief Justice Roberts told Sauer that his entire argument rested on a handful of strange exceptions, like children born to foreign diplomats or to enemies during a military invasion, and he asked how Sauer could stretch those tiny examples to cover millions of people. Justice Gorsuch told Sauer bluntly that he might want to stop relying on Wong Kim Ark, an 1898 Supreme Court case that found the child of Chinese nationals was indeed a citizen, because the case supported the idea of birthright citizenship.
Sauer urged the Court to consider the present-day reality of birthright citizenship: “We’re in a new world now…where 8 billion people are one plane ride away from having a child who’s a US citizen.”
Chief Justice John Roberts replied: “Well, it’s a new world. It’s the same Constitution.”
Justice Kagan told Sauer he was engaging in a revisionist version of history, and Kavanaugh essentially said that how other countries handle citizenship — something Sauer repeatedly brought up — is of little consequence, since we are dealing with the American Constitution. Justice Jackson drove the point home, asking if the government was planning on bringing pregnant women in for depositions to determine their immigration status.
Justice Gorsuch also point-blank asked Sauer if Native Americans were natural-born citizens and Sauer hesitated repeatedly, before saying he thought so, but he would need to consider it further. By the end of the hearing, it appeared that only two justices — Thomas and Alito — were sympathetic to the government’s arguments.
Trump attended the hearing — a first for a sitting president — and left halfway through. He later posted on social media that the US was “the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship.” More than 30 countries grant automatic birthright citizenship.
The Court is expected to rule in June or July.
Iran
A day after the Associated Press reported that Gulf states allied with the US are urging continued action in Iran, President Trump told Reuters that the US would be “out of Iran pretty quickly” and return only for “spot hits,” though he gave no timeline for ending current operations and did not explain what would trigger a return.
Although the Trump administration has at times suggested that a major objective of the war is to eliminate Iran’s prospects of developing a nuclear weapon, when asked about Iran’s underground enriched uranium stockpiles, Trump said: “That’s so far underground, I don’t care about that.” Trump had previously stated that Iran could not keep enriched uranium. But early this week, Trump administration officials told The Wall Street Journal that the president was considering ordering US troops into Iran to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of stored enriched uranium.
Trump also threatened to withdraw from NATO, the treaty alliance the US joined in 1949. “They haven’t been friends when we needed them,” he said. “We’ve never asked them for much… it’s a one-way street.” Trump has asked European allies for help reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blockaded since the war began. They have refused.
Newsbreak
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Election Executive Order
President Trump yesterday signed an executive order directing administration officials to compile lists of eligible voters in each state for federal elections, while imposing new restrictions on mail-in voting.
The order, “protecting the integrity of federal elections,” instructs agencies including the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to build state-by-state lists of voting-age American citizens and share them with state election officials. The order directs the DOJ to investigate and prosecute state and local election officials who give out ballots to anyone who is not eligible, and it also seeks to limit mail ballots to voters on approved lists and requires tracking through mail barcodes.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows told the AP the order was “laughably unconstitutional” and said her state would not comply. Most states allow some form of mail-in voting; eight states and Washington DC conduct elections entirely by mail, automatically sending ballots to all registered voters in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington.
DHS Shutdown Deal
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson announced today that Republicans have reached an agreement to end the 47-day partial DHS shutdown, with a vote possible as early as tomorrow morning.
The deal, which Speaker Johnson refused to let the House vote on last week, would fund DHS through Sept. 30. ICE and Border Patrol would continue operating on funds Congress approved last year rather than new appropriations, sidestepping Democratic demands for restrictions on immigration enforcement. Democrats had sought to require judicial warrants for arrests, visible identification for agents, and a stop to enforcement near schools and churches.
Trump said today he would sign the proposed funding bill, a position a senior White House official confirmed.
The shutdown has strained airport security nationwide, with TSA officers working without pay for weeks, leading to widespread callouts and resignations. The officers started getting back pay this week.
Kid Rock Flyby
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said yesterday that US Army pilots who flew Apache helicopters near the Nashville home of musician Kid Rock will not face punishment, reversing an earlier suspension and investigation.
The helicopters, part of a training mission, made low passes over both anti-Trump “No Kings” protests and Kid Rock’s property last week, prompting scrutiny over possible violations of flight rules and concerns about the military appearing politicized. The Army had initially grounded the crew pending review.
Hegseth, however, halted the inquiry, posting on social media: “No punishment. No investigation.”
According to NPR, Kid Rock — a supporter of President Trump — had no problem with the helicopters’ flight path. “If it makes their day a little brighter for their service to our country, protecting us, I think that’s a great thing,” he said.
Artemis II Moon Mission
Four astronauts lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida today at 6.35 p.m. ET, beginning a 10-day journey around the moon and back aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft — ahead of a planned lunar landing mission in 2028.
The mission — Artemis II — is designed to test the spacecraft’s life support, communications and navigation systems with a crew aboard for the first time. It is the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in December 1972.
So, if I'm understanding it correctly, essentially nothing came out of the DHS funding battle...other than DHS receiving no NEW funding. Is this significant in any way since it was already funded by BBB? Like will it "hurt" DHS to not receive new funding? Were the Republicans essentially able to sidestep Democrat demands with this, or did Democrats agree to this?
Because if not, what a colossal waste of time and resources, inflicting weeks of hardship on TSA workers and others. As a Minneapolis resident, who lives blocks away from where Renee Good was killed, I so hoped for more regulations around DHS and ICE to come out of all of this.
My Secretary of State is courageous, and will most certainly not comply with the president's ridiculous executive order.