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The Last Word with Lawrence O' Donnell starts right now. Hey, Lawrence, Jen. Always impressive to see math on live television. I wouldn't have dared tried that myself. Hey, I'm not a mathematician. Big new, big New Jersey night on your show tonight. And it was a day in the United States Supreme Court. And when it's a big day in the Supreme Court, that means Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe will start us off tonight.
Ketanji Brown Jackson (1:11)
Nothing better than two Lawrences explaining what.
Jen Psaki (1:14)
Just happened in the Supreme Court today. Lots of legal minds and expertise there.
Lawrence Tribe (1:18)
Yeah.
Jen Psaki (1:18)
And for once, one of them knows what he's talking about. Here we go. Perfect. Have a great show, Lawrence. Thanks, Jen. Thank you. Well, the Trump lawyer who has made the most absurd arguments the Supreme Court has ever heard on behalf of Donald Trump was back in front of the Supreme Court today for Donald Trump. And this time, Donald Trump had a very, very bad day with not a single member of the Supreme Court taking Donald Trump's side of the argument or trying to help Donald Trump's lawyer in any way. Remember Samuel Alito, the author of the repeal of Roe v. Wade, which cited the legal opinions of British judges who presided over witch trials in that overturning Roe vs. Wade opinion? Remember the way Samuel Alito all but climbed down from the bench to argue the case in favor of criminal immunity for the criminal conduct of Donald Trump while he was president. Samuel Alito and the other Republican judges on the Supreme Court tortured themselves to create out of nothing what they claim is a constitutional principle that had never been written down anywhere by anyone, that the president of the United States is immune from criminal investigation and criminal prosecution for anything he does in office. But today, that same Samuel Alito was tied with Clarence Thomas in having the least to say in the hearing. Neither one of them offered any support for any of the Trump arguments against the actual words of the Constitution, words that say, quote, all persons born in the United States are citizens of The United States. That's what was at stake today in the Supreme Court. The very definition of who we are, the very definition of who is a citizen of the United States. A definition that has been settled beyond dispute since 1866. And before that, a definition that has been supported by the United States Supreme Court in repeated rulings that confirm the constitutional law that all persons born in the United States are citizens of the United States. The lawyer who last year argued to the Supreme Court that as President Donald Trump could order Seal Team 6 to assassinate his opponents is now the Solicitor General of the United States. And today, Solicitor General John Sauer told the Supreme Court that the Constitution does not say what it says. He told the Supreme Court that all persons born in the United States are not citizens. And then he kept talking after that. Imagine that, declaring something as absurd as that in front of the United States Supreme Court. He once again said the most absurd thing that these members of the United States Supreme Court have ever heard. And this time, his support team of Republican Supreme Court justices did not attempt to rescue him. Two hours before the Supreme Court heard the case today, the stupidest president in history decided to tell the Supreme Court what to do on social media. Big case today in the United States Supreme Court. Birthright citizenship was not meant for people taking vacations to become permanent citizens of the United States of America and bringing their families with them all the time laughing at the suckers that we are. Exclamation point. There was immigration to the United States when the Constitution was written. There were massive waves of immigration to the United states when the 14th Amendment was written, which is the final constitutional pronouncement in writing on citizenship. And the 14th Amendment did not say all persons born in the United States except the children of tourists or the children of immigrants. It said all persons born in the United States. There were massive waves of immigrants coming to the United states before the 14th Amendment was written. A famine in Ireland sent what Donald Trump would have called the worst people to the United States. The millions of starving Irish who fled to the United states in the 19th century were among the poorest people in the world. And there were Americans like Donald Trump then who didn't want them here. There were Americans like Donald Trump who didn't think a single immigrant from Ireland should be allowed into this country, not one. And there was enough anti immigrant feeling in this country to create strong anti Irish sentiment among the people who were here before them. But it wasn't strong enough to infect the Constitution with Donald Trump's kind of thinking. In 1866, the authors of the 14th Amendment knew that there were people who would have loved the 14th amendment to say all persons born in the United States except two Irish parents are citizens of the United States. That's what Donald Trump would have wanted if he could have gotten a word into the 14th Amendment in 1866. But the anti immigration hatred that was loose in this country then was kept out of the room when the 14th Amendment was written and when it was ratified by two thirds majorities of the House and the Senate. And on Inauguration Day this year, Donald Trump decided to hatefully rewrite the Constitution. Federal courts around the country have issued 40 injunctions against Donald Trump's executive order eliminating birthright citizenship in this country. Those courts are still considering the issue for a final judgment. While those injunctions prevent Donald Trump from denying citizenship to babies born in America tonight. And those injunctions hold throughout the country. Donald Trump's Solicitor General went to the Supreme Court to ask them not to decide the actual case itself about birthright citizenship, but just to decide that no individual federal judge should be allowed to issue an injunction that applies to the entire country. If Donald Trump succeeds with the Supreme Court, then those injunctions will only apply in the 22 states where they have been issued. And that would mean tomorrow citizenship in America would depend on which state you are born in. In Donald Trump's lying social media post today, he said birthright citizenship is about the babies of slaves. Really? Then why doesn't it say that the 14th Amendment could have said to all persons born to slaves in the United States are citizens of the United States. They knew what slaves were when they were writing that amendment, but that's not what it says. The historically imbecilic social media post Donald Trump put out two hours before the Supreme Court hearing today, said, In 1866, we didn't have people pouring, pouring into our country from all over South America and the rest of the world. Oh, yes, we did. And they were almost all white and all poor and many of them starving, many of them sick, many of them dying in transit to this country. The kind of people Donald Trump would have deported on the spot. Those ships docking in the ports of Boston and the port of New York would have been turned back by Donald Trump if he could have. There were Donald Trumps at that time who wanted to do that, who wanted to send those ships back. And when those Donald trumps of the 19th century and the early 20th century were hiring workers for their companies, their hiring notices had the letters Nina in the lower right corner, meaning no Irish need apply. That Trumpian spirit was alive in this country in 1866 and it has been alive ever since. But this is the first time that that Trumpian anti immigrant hatred presented itself to the United States Supreme Court to tell the United States Supreme Court that the Constitution does not say what it says. The Supreme Court could not ask for a simpler case than the one they heard today because the work has been done for them repeatedly. 127 years ago, Supreme Court Justice Horace Gray wrote, the 14th Amendment affirms the ancient and fundamental rule of citizenship by birth within the territory, in the allegiance and under the protection of the country, including all children here born of resident aliens, with the exceptions or qualifications as old as the rule itself, of children of foreign sovereigns or their ministers born on foreign public ships, or of enemies within and during a hostile occupation of part of our territory, and with the single additional exception of children of members of the Indian tribes of owing direct allegiance to their several tribes. The Amendment, in clear words and in manifest intent, includes the children born within the territory of the United States of all other persons of whatever race or color domiciled within the United States. Every citizen or subject of another country while domiciled here, is within the allegiance and the protection and, and consequently subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. When Donald Trump first started lying about President Obama's citizenship, Jeremy Feigenbaum was a senior in college with no idea that the day would come that he would stand at a podium in the Supreme Court of the United States arguing against Donald Trump's poisonous definition of citizenship. Jeremy Feigenbaum graduated from Harvard law school only 11 years ago, the law school Donald Trump hates more than any other among all the universities he's now trying to destroy in this country. Jeremy Feigenbaum has been a lawyer for 10 years, only 10 years, and he's now the Solicitor General of the State of New Jersey. His first experience in the Supreme Court was as a clerk for Justice Elena Kagan, a former Dean of the Harvard Law School. Jeremy Feigenbaum is just in the first chapter of what is likely to be at least a 50 year career as a lawyer. And today he delivered as masterful a presentation to the Supreme Court as we could hope to hear, including a very special moment with Samuel Alito. Samuel Alito fancies himself the greatest mind the Court has ever had. He's not the only one who's ever felt that way about himself as a Supreme Court justice, but he's the worst at masking that feeling until at the end of his Very brief and totally insignificant questioning of Jeremy Feigenbaum. Samuel Alito was so dazzled and dizzied by Jeremy Feigenbaum's fulsome argument that Samuel Alito simply gave up and quit in deciding the question that is before us here. Do you think we should. Never mind.