It’s not about ending birthright citizenship – it’s about revoking yours
ALSO INSIDE: We’re at the ‘hackers save the day’ part of preserving democracy
Hi all 👋 Cam here, COURIER’s National correspondent.
I write this newsletter every day to help you see and understand what’s happening – including the things that don’t make the traditional media’s headlines – and how you can use your power to take action. Here’s what you can expect in each of the sections of today’s newsletter:
(In)sane Washing: How people are attempting to normalize absurd abuses of power and blatant corruption – which the mainstream media has completely become a victim of.
Do Something (Literally Anything): What courts, elected officials, and everyday people are doing to effectively take a stand
The Examination: Things that members of Congress don’t want you to know about
From the Front(lines): A spotlight on how Trump’s policies are impacting people in your communities, from slashed government services to empty shelves to abducting your friends and neighbors off the street.
You can also find me on X/Twitter and Bluesky if you want to connect there!
And one last note: You may have noticed that my newsletter is taking the place of the From the Frontlines newsletter. I’ll be covering a lot of similar ground, and I think if you enjoyed From the Frontlines, you’ll feel right at home here. However, if you are not interested in receiving this newsletter, you can unsubscribe at the bottom of this email.
What Happened
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday in a case challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to end birthright citizenship. Trump released a statement that morning, where he called the US a “STUPID country” and incorrectly stated that birthright citizenship was only meant to apply to the children of enslaved Americans after the Civil War.
“It had to do with Civil War results, and the babies of slaves who our politicians felt, correctly, needed protection,” Trump wrote. “What we had were the BABIES OF SLAVES. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
While granting formerly enslaved Americans the right to citizenship was the spark for the 14th Amendment, that was not its only goal, as has been affirmed again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.
So why is the Supreme Court even hearing this case? Because what Trump’s pushing on social media isn’t actually what his lawyers are arguing in court.
Buried in legal filings, Trump’s team is laying the groundwork to give the President final say over who obtains—and retains—US citizenship. Their argument is that children of noncitizens are born into a family whose permanent residency is their home country, and, as such, “the child’s domicile also lies in the foreign country, and the child owes allegiance to that country.”
Attorneys working on the case worry that if Trump successfully begins to chip away at citizenship rights, he won’t stop with the 14th Amendment, and citizenship revocation won’t be limited to the children of immigrants, but could be weaponized against any US citizen.
“It could certainly be interpreted that way and and that's why this is so dangerous,” said one attorney, who spoke to me on condition of anonymity. “You could make the case that, they're not loyal, then what does loyalty mean, you know? And who decides who is subject to this jurisdiction, if you're opening it up to tinker with the Constitution.”
Essentially, the government is arguing that citizenship is contingent on allegiance or loyalty to the United States, and anyone the Trump administration deems not sufficiently loyal can have their citizenship revoked at the President’s discretion.
Attempts to Sanewash
Trump weighs in ahead of Supreme Court arguments on birthright citizenship
US Supreme Court grapples with Trump bid to restrict birthright citizenship
Trump presses Supreme Court on birthright citizenship ahead of oral arguments
Far-Right Spin
The hacking collective Anonymous are our heroes of the day
Government agents have disappeared—meaning they abducted someone without alerting their family and created no record of the arrest, causing the person to vanish without a trace—thousands of people since Trump took office in January. Distressed family members have had some success identifying their loved ones in propaganda videos released to showcase the human rights violations on display in El Salvador’s mega-prison, CECOT, but countless more disappeared people are completely unaccounted for.
While the government has failed to keep a record of every person they’ve taken, the private companies they pay to carry out their dastardly deeds do—after all, they can’t collect the bounty if they don’t keep receipts. And it’s thanks to these records that more people have been able to locate disappeared family members and begin the fight to bring them home.
Let me repeat that: it’s thanks to the records, not the companies themselves. And thanks to a group of hackers – or, as they are sometimes called, hacktivists – who obtained the flight manifests of GlobalX, a private charter company the government uses to whisk their unsuspecting victims out of the country before the courts can stop them.
“Anonymous has decided to enforce the Judge’s order,” Anonymous, the hacktivist collective, said in a released statement. “Since you and your sycophant staff ignore lawful orders that go against your fascist plans.”
It was because of these flight manifests, first reported on by 404 Media, that at least one disappeared individual, Ricardo Prada Vásquez, has been located. Vásquez was taken by government agents in March, while working his food delivery job in Detroit. The government did admit they had sent him to El Salvador—over a month after the abduction—but only released that he had been sent to El Salvador, not that he was incarcerated.
Now that his family knows where he is, lawyers can submit a writ of habeas corpus to have his right to due process restored.
US Rep. Ralph Norman, South Carolina’s 5th District
Since taking office in 2015, Rep. Norman has:
Seen his net worth increase from $53M to $66M
Taken out over $300,000 in PPP loans that he never paid back
Sponsored 160 bills
Authored one bill that has been signed into law, to rename a post office
Privately pressured Trump to invoke martial law—or has he called it, “Marshall Law” — to prevent Biden from being sworn in as president
Sued Nancy Pelosi over House rules that required Members to wear a mask on the Floor, refused to wear a mask while he had COVID-19
Tried to reinstate disgraced white supremacist, Nazi-sympathiser Rep. Steve King
Fun Facts
While Rep. Norman campaigned on preventing economic hardship, he returned to his multimillionaire roots when his term began in 2025. Two months after being sworn in, he cosponsored a bill to create a new $250 bill with Donald Trump’s face on it.
During the 2018 confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh for US Supreme Court Justice, which revealed a troubling history of alleged sexual assault, Norman dismissed the allegations. He tried to make a joke out of them, including facetiously claiming that fellow Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had been sexually assaulted by Abraham Lincoln.
A few months before Norman “accused” the sixteenth US President of sexual assault, he met with a group of parents who were concerned about gun safety. Norman responded by pulling a gun on them. Those involved tried to press charges, but the first prosecutor recused himself due to his personal friendship with Norman. The request made its way to the Republican state attorney general, who dismissed the charges.
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‘Justice Delayed is Justice Denied’
The release of a Georgetown University student who was abducted and jailed in March by masked, badgeless government agents was ordered Wednesday after being detained for two months.
While Badar Khan Suri’s student visa was revoked by the Trump administration over his family’s ties to Palestine, he was never charged with a crime and contends he was illegally detained.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” said Khan Suri. “They made a subhuman out of me. They took me from one center to another, not letting my family know, not letting me know that I have attorneys.”
Khan Suri is one of thousands of international students targeted unlawfully by the Trump administration in an attempt to further discourage immigrants from coming to the United States
You can get the full breakdown from Michael O’Conner, political correspondent for COURIER’s Dogwood newsroom in Virginia, on TikTok or Instagram.
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Only in a third world country.
My beloved America has been accosted kidnapped abused by thugs with a goal to reduce We the people to existing in a third world country.
Only in a third world country. My beloved America has been accosted kidnapped beaten into submission transformed into a third world country.