President Donald Trump reportedly demanded that his seat be moved at the Supreme Court so he could sit directly in front of the court’s justices during his unprecedented visit to the court to witness the oral arguments in his birthright citizenship case this week.
Trump became the first president to attend a Supreme Court oral argument, a move that many critics took to be a naked attempt to intimidate the court into ruling in his favor. Early in his second term, Trump issued an executive order challenging the 14th Amendment, which establishes that anyone born on U.S. soil is a U.S. citizen.
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero told MSNOW that Trump was initially seated at the end of the first row of seats, but Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told the court’s security that the president wanted to be moved to the center, where he would face the justices.
“Then it was clear that he was endeavoring to put his thumb on the scale,” Romero said. ““He was endeavoring to glower at the justices to kind of intimidate them, almost defy them to rule against him.”
Romero said that rather than appearing intimidating, Trump spent the hearing fidgeting in his chair. He said after ACLU Legal Director Cecilia Wang began making her opening arguments that the president “started getting restless” and that his “shoulders slumped a little bit.”
He said Trump left the courtroom approximately 10 or 15 minutes into Wang’s opening argument.
Romero said the court did fall quiet when Trump entered, but he added that his presence didn’t seem to throw the justices.
Trump was clearly not happy with what he saw during his time at the court.
“We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship!” he raged on Truth Social after he left.
Trump complained about the Supreme Court again during a private Easter event with MAGA religious figures later the same day.
“Republicans, judges, and justices,” Trump said. “They always want to show that they’re independent.”
He continued: “‘I don’t care if Trump appointed me, I don’t care, if it doesn’t make any difference to me. I’m voting against him!” Trump complained.
He said people within the named groups defy him because “they want to show their independence, you know. Stupid people.”
Trump’s ranting continued on Thursday, when he called the Supreme Court a “KANGAROO COURT!!!” on Truth Social.
During the hearing, Justice John Roberts noted that Trump’s executive order focused on the citizenship of the parents rather than the citizenship of the individual born in the U.S. and said it would be extremely difficult to actually enforce Trump’s order.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, questioned the practicality of the president’s order.
“How would it work?” she asked. “How would you adjudicate these cases? You’re not going to know at the time of birth whether they have the intent to stay or not, including U.S. citizens, by the way.”
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