The language of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment does not lend itself to wiggle room. “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” it reads. In other words, if you’re born in the U.S., you’re a citizen of the U.S.

Donald Trump has nevertheless spent years condemning what’s known as “birthright citizenship” and vowing to undo it, despite the plain language of the Constitution.

To that end, on Inauguration Day the new Republican president kept one of his uglier campaign promises and issued an executive order designed to gut the constitutional principle, and directed federal agencies to refuse to recognize U.S. citizenship for children who do not meet the administration’s new standards.

Not surprisingly, Trump’s radical gambit has struggled in the courts, which relied on generations’ worth of legal precedent, but the Supreme Court nevertheless agreed to hear the case. Ahead of Wednesday’s oral arguments, the president decided to do something his predecessors never did. MS NOW reported:

President Donald Trump will be watching oral arguments today as the Supreme Court weighs whether the president holds the power to end birthright citizenship. […]

Trump’s presence at the court is significant. He will be the first known sitting U.S. president to attend oral arguments before the high court, according to the Supreme Court Historical Society.

By way of explanation, the president told reporters on Tuesday that he intended to sit in on oral arguments “because I have listened to this argument for so long.” (A day later, I’m not entirely sure what that was supposed to mean.)

Most legal observers agree that the White House is very likely to lose. Trump wants the power to unilaterally declare that the Constitution doesn’t say what it plainly says, and there probably aren’t five justices who will go along with such an absurdity.

So why bother with an unprecedented presidential appearance at the high court? There are two prevailing explanations — though they’re not mutually exclusive, and both could be true.

The first is that this is part of a ham-fisted intimidation campaign: By literally showing up in person, it’s possible that Trump, who appointed a third of the court’s justices, thought he could apply extra pressure to those who will decide the case’s fate.

If this is the goal, the president is likely to be disappointed. Unlike congressional Republicans, justices don’t want to be seen as obedient White House loyalists, and it’s easy to imagine Trump’s stunt backfiring.

The other theory is that Trump recognizes the fact that the Supreme Court won’t let him rewrite constitutional law through an executive order, so he went to oral arguments as a political tactic intended to deliver an anti-immigrant message — which the White House sees as more politically salient than other issues that are dominating the public conversation, such as the war with Iran and high gas prices.

“The big thing for Trump is to be seen putting up a fight,” Politico noted. “This policy — always a Hail Mary from a legal perspective — is as much about signaling to the president’s base as it is a serious attempt to change the law.”

Whatever the explanation, if the president expects his order to be upheld, he probably ought to start lowering his expectations. Watch this space.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

The post Trump’s attendance at the Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship arguments won’t help his case appeared first on MS NOW.

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From MS Now.