On Wednesday, April 1, 2026, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order against birthright citizenship. The order was issued on the president’s first day in office and was made to prevent automatic citizenship for children of illegal aliens born on U.S. soil. During the arguments, Solicitor General John Sauer took Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to school on a few points in an epic video clip making waves on social media.
The video, which features the actual audio from the arguments that took place inside the Supreme Court, starts with Sauer talking about Social Security numbers and how they are generated. “Social Security numbers are generated based on the birth certificate. They say this can still be for the vast majority of instances completely transparent. You will still get a –”
Justice Jackson interjected, saying, ” — Not on transparent. I’m just talking about the particulars because now you say your rule turns on whether the person intended to stay in the United States.” She then added, “And I think Justice Barrett brought this up. So are we bringing pregnant women in for deposition? What — what are we doing to figure this out?”
According to the official transcript of the arguments, Sauer answered, “No. As I pointed out earlier, the Executive Order turns on lawfulness of status. So, if you give birth to a baby in the hospital right now, it gets the birth certificate in the system. There’s a computer system that we talked about that assigns –” Jackson interjected for a second time.
“So there’s no opportunity — there’s apparently no opportunity then for the person to prove or to say that they actually intended to stay in the United States?” She asked Sauer. The solicitor general then replied, “Absolutely not. The opposite is true. Their opportunity to dispute if they think they were denied, which would only happen in a tiny minority of cases –”
“After the fact,” Jackson said, though Sauer kept on explaining his point “–is directly addressed in that guidance.” Jackson stated again this would be after the fact, to which Sauer said yes. Seeking clarification, Jackson asked, “–after their baby has been denied citizenship, then we can go through the process?” Again, Sauer answered yes.
“And that way , I mean, I’m summarizing because I’m not an expert on computers , but there’s a computer program that currently automatically generates a Social Security number. SSA (Social Security Administration) says, look, a Social Security number, non-citizens can have them if they have work authorization, so it doesn’t prove citizenship.”
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He continued, “We’ll give you a Social Security number provided that there’s — the system automatically checks the immigration status of the parents, which there are robust databases for, and then you — you — you — it appears no different to the vast majority of birthing parents.”
Another important point that was brought up during the arguments was that of birth tourism, a booming industry in other parts of the world that is built entirely on taking advantage of birthright citizenship. Sauer explained, “Media reported as early as 2015 that, based on Chinese media reports, there are 500 — 500 — birth tourism companies in the People’s Republic of China whose business is to bring people here to give birth and return to that nation.” The topic was addressed after Chief Justice John Roberts asked him about how prevalent birth tourism is in the U.S., according to Fox News.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video