SCOTUS delivers Trump another defeat: Here’s what you need to know

• The Supreme Court today struck down Trump’s attempt to unilaterally deny citizenship to children born in the United States to foreign nationals, a plan that would have sharply altered who can vote in American elections.

➤ What to know about today’s decision

But Republicans are just getting started on birthright citizenship

• As reporter Jacob Knutson notes, while the SCOTUS decision was technically a win, many legal scholars and immigration advocates felt there was little cause for celebration.
  
  
• The ruling, where only five justices agreed the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause confers automatic citizenship to children born to parents unlawfully or temporarily in the country, shows “that this issue will not die today,” one expert told Democracy Docket.
  

➤ How the fight will continue after today

Following court order, DHS appears to have shut down database for checking voter citizenship

• In a ruling last week, a judge ordered DHS to set aside upgrades it had made to the database to turn it into a tool for checking the citizenship status of millions of registered voters at a time, which Trump directed last spring.
  
  
• Lawyers for plaintiffs in the lawsuit told Democracy Docket that government attorneys informed them that the database’s bulk upload functions and social security number searches have been disabled, and that state election officials who had been using the system were no longer able to do so.

➤ More on the shutdown of the database

The U.S. isn’t safe from the SAVE America Act quite yet, as the GOP tries again to pass it

• MAGA hardliners in the U.S. House of Representatives hijacked control of the floor from House Speaker Mike Johnson today in yet another unsuccessful attempt to ram through Trump’s pet-project legislation in a must-pass annual defense bill.
  
  
• It wasn’t their first attempt to pass it, and it probably won’t be the last.
  

➤ The latest on Trump’s dangerous legislation

Fallout from yesterday’s Watson ruling continues… oh, and speaking of the SAVE America Act…

• When reacting to the news of his SCOTUS loss in Watson v. RNC, Trump took the opportunity to push the bill. However, he acknowledged that passage of the measure is “probably not going to happen.”
  

➤ More on Trump’s comments

Cleta Mitchell says the Watson ruling opens door to destroy early voting: ‘Let's file some cases’

• In comments on Steve Bannon’s podcast, Mitchell said she believes there’s now a legal avenue to kill early voting — and she doesn’t want to wait to sue.

➤ What else did she say?

More on Watson: The RNC tried to throw out your ballot. I fought back and won

• “After several years of back-and-forth in the lower courts, the case — Watson v. RNC — arrived at the U.S. Supreme Court for argument this spring,” Marc writes in his latest opinion piece. “The Court rejected the RNC’s scheme to disenfranchise voters. Democracy won.”
  

• This piece was originally written for Democracy Docket members. We’re sharing this one with everyone because yesterday’s ruling is too consequential not to. Become a member to get Marc’s exclusive analysis first.

➤ Read how Marc “fought back and won”

Here we share noteworthy briefs on all things voting rights and democracy. Have a footnote for us? Send it to newsletters@democracydocket.com.

• We couldn’t help ourselves, we needed to fact-check Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fl.). She reacted to today’s birthright citizenship SCOTUS decision by claiming the “founding fathers” drafted the 14th Amendment. Spoiler alert: They didn’t. After we corrected her, she deleted her tweet.
  
  
• The mystery of Rep. Tom Kean’s (R-N.J.) prolonged and unexplained absence is over. He returned to Congress today and said the reason for his months-long disappearance was depression.
  
  
• Gov. Jeff Landry (R-La.) was on Fox News today, claiming it was “unbelievable to see people out here” at Trump’s state fair just as the camera turned to show… very few people there.