MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The Supreme Court has issued the final decisions of this term. The court ruled that President Trump's executive order trying to limit automatic citizenship to babies born in the U.S. is unconstitutional. The court also allowed states to ban transgender girls and women from participating in sports at publicly funded schools.
I do want to note that in an earlier broadcast, NPR incorrectly reported that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito had retired. He has not made such an announcement, and we regret this error.
Joining us to talk about today's decisions are NPR Supreme Court and justice correspondent Carrie Johnson and legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg. Nina, I'm going to go to you first. Let's start with the birthright citizenship decision, a eagerly awaited decision by all parties. What struck you about the decision?
NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE: Well, it wasn't a surprise that the Supreme Court struck down President Trump's executive order that would have denied citizenship to babies born in the United States who are here - whose parents were here illegally or even legally on visas. Every judge up until today who had ruled on it had struck down his executive order, and it never, as a result, went into effect. But today, by a 6-3 vote, the court reached the same conclusion that the citizenship clause covers babies born in the United States and guarantees them automatic citizenship.
And the author of the opinion, of course, was the Chief Justice John Roberts. And it was very interesting, his delivering the summary of his opinion, because he went out of his way trying not to antagonize President Trump by saying that much of what this administration argued in the court was the same thing. However, at the core, at the end, he said, dating back to British citizenship, which was guaranteed to American colonists - and that's where they got the idea that everybody born in the U.S. should be American citizens - that that from the founding of the 14th Amendment, and dating back even to the ideas of the 1700s, means that anyone born on U.S. soil is guaranteed U.S. citizenship.
MARTIN: You know, what do you make of the fact that the justices were split on this ruling, given, as you said, that every lower court has ruled in this way? The fact that the court was split at this level - what does that say to you?
TOTENBERG: It tells you just how conservative this court is. You could even say, in some ways, that this was a 5-4 ruling because Justice Kavanaugh did not sign on to the Chief Justice's opinion. He said, look, Congress legislated this in the 1950s. So it legislated the same thing, so I agree that children born on U.S. soil are automatic U.S. citizens. But he didn't sign on to his reasoning about what the founders intended...
MARTIN: And...
TOTENBERG: ...In the constitution.
MARTIN: Just briefly, though, Nina, you were in court today when the opinions were read. Could you just describe what that was like? You were telling us that an earlier decision day, there was some sort of unusual tension manifest among the judges. So what was it like today?
TOTENBERG: You know, there was at least one dissent from the bench, but it was not like the other day. It was much more normal, and it is the last day of the term for all practical purposes. And therefore, everybody is just ready to flee. All the justices are ready to flee. They've been working their tails off - pardon the expression - for the last two or three months to get everything done. And it's been a very, very contentious term. And I - you don't have to be a genius to know that these folks don't particularly get along. But they got along enough to get this - get to the end of the term and get it done by the end of June. And this was a calmer court today, getting ready to leave town, I would say.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We're listening to NPR's Nina Totenberg at the Supreme Court, and Nina, when you say the phrase working their tails off. I immediately think of Nina Totenberg working all those years at the Supreme Court.
NPR's Carrie Johnson is also covering this case. She is here in Studio 31, or I should say covering this day of rulings, Carrie, because we have these separate rulings on the issue of transgender kids in sports. What's the decision?
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Yes, this was a decision...
INSKEEP: And we'll get Carrie Johnson's microphone on, and we'll try again. There we go.
JOHNSON: This - yes, Steve, this was a decision in a combination of cases - one from West Virginia, another from Idaho - with respect to trans students' participation in women and girls sports in - at the high school level and the college level. Just as Brett Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion in this set of cases, he said, schools that receive federal funding for education programs can determine eligibility for women and girls sports teams based on biological sex.
That's important because about half the states have enacted bans that would not allow trans girls and women to participate in these sports. The Supreme Court majority, led by Brett Kavanaugh, now says, those bans are totally fine. They can stay in effect. At issue here were two separate laws - Title IX, which is an important law that governs federal funding for education programs and prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.
INSKEEP: And...
TOTENBERG: Can I just add one thing?
INSKEEP: Go right in.
TOTENBERG: Sitting in the Justice's box today were Justice Kavanaugh's wife, his mother and his two teenage girls. And he has been their coach in various sports for years, and he's a big sports enthusiast. So it was no accident that he talked so passionately about what sports do for young women and what Title IX did for young women, and stressing his argument that it is only because of concerns about safety and an undue influence on competitiveness that he has - that he reached - he and the court reached this decision.
INSKEEP: Carrie Johnson, Nina makes a point there that reminds me that opinions on this are not split on straight partisan lines. There are lots of people who would consider themselves liberals who had a problem with trans girls in sports.
JOHNSON: It's a complicated issue in terms of the culture wars, and the Trump administration and the MAGA movement have really been on the offense on several of these culture war issues involving trans students and adults, for that matter.
MARTIN: Carrie, let me ask you about another consequential decision reached this morning that loosened campaign finance restrictions. So briefly tell us about this decision, and what impact could that have on political campaigns with several primaries left and midterm elections in November?
JOHNSON: Yeah, this is another important decision considered to be a very big victory for the Republican National Committee, which had pushed quite hard to get rid of limitations on coordination with candidates and spending for advertising dollars, something that our colleague Mara Liasson says the RNC could put into effect within the hour. Important because it continues this trend of the conservative Supreme Court viewing these issues on the lens of the First Amendment, that this is free speech, that this money counts as free speech dating all the way back to Citizens United. And in fact, former Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, a Democrat who - if you've been around long enough to know, he passed an important campaign finance law...
INSKEEP: Yeah.
JOHNSON: ...With John McCain back in the day - said, this is the latest in a series of bad decisions by the Supreme Court that's flooded the political system with unprecedented amounts of money, leading to potential corruption and the idea that billionaires can buy politicians.
INSKEEP: I'm glad you mentioned NPR's Mara Liasson because she is on the line with us to analyze the politics of this a little bit. And, Mara, first, let's talk about that birthright decision - huge but not surprising defeat for President Trump. How is he likely to take this?
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: I think we're waiting for an angry Truth Social post at the moment. But I think he'll say that he's going to continue to fight for this. I think that's the message he wants to send to his MAGA base. Remember, this was his first executive order, the very first one that he did on his first day in office. So he'll keep on pushing for this. But for the moment, you could argue that it was a political win for him in another way because he doesn't have to deal with the chaotic consequences of getting rid of birthright citizenship right before an election.
INSKEEP: Interesting point. And so there's not the blowback. And...
LIASSON: But he gets the message. Yeah.
INSKEEP: He gets the message. He gets the messaging that he wants to the people who support that message. Let me ask now about the campaign finance case. The president has responded to this one, quote, "big win for Republicans." Is it?
LIASSON: And I - it's been - be hard to disagree with him on that one.
INSKEEP: Go on and explain why that would be.
LIASSON: Big win for Republicans - Republicans have a lot more money. This makes it easier for them to spend it. They don't have to use the old rules of no coordinating with candidates. They also are going to get lower rates to buy political ads on television. I guess this hurts somebody who owns a local TV station. But, yeah, it's very much in concert with other things that this court has done around campaign finance. They believe that money is speech, and so that wasn't much of a surprise.
I think in all, when you look at the whole term - and I'd be interested to see what Nina thinks about this - it was a pretty successful term for him. Executive power got expanded, and that is what he's been pushing for. And this is a court that believes in the unitary executive. They got rid of Humphrey's Executor, which means...
INSKEEP: Yeah.
LIASSON: ...That he can fire people without cause who are in heads of federal agencies. They haven't ruled yet about the Fed. They seem to think that's a kind of special case, but that's TBD.
INSKEEP: They held it off for now. Let me just...
LIASSON: Yeah.
INSKEEP: ...Bring in Nina Totenberg in the 30 seconds we have left. Nina, how would you assess this term if it was asking how it looks for President Trump?
TOTENBERG: I would say that with the exception of birthright and the tariff case, this was a Gonzo term for Trump. He won most of everything he wanted. Even on tariffs, as everybody always knew, there are some ways around it, even though some of those may be limited. And when it comes to birthright, Mara's right, and everything else pretty much that he wanted, he got. And this is a a court that, by a 6-3 majority, is devoted to the idea of executive power, and it has strengthened it over and over and over again.
INSKEEP: And we'll keep listening. NPR's Nina Totenberg, NPR's Carrie Johnson and NPR's Mara Liasson, thanks to all of you for your insights on this big day of Supreme Court rulings at the end of the term. We'll continue to analyze and report on the results right here on NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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