Thursday: SCOTUS Passed the Buck, GOP Has No Plan

Rush Lindell: Welcome back, everybody, to the Rush Lindell Show. Reagan: Good to be here. Grab your coffee, because the Supreme Court just handed us a doozy. Rush Lindell: A doozy? Try seismic. Birthright citizenship survives. 6-3 case closed. Reagan: 6-3, or so everyone keeps saying. Rush Lindell: Ha, ha! Wait, or so? You've got that look on your face. Reagan: Let's just say the real math might surprise you. We'll get into it. Rush Lindell: Oh, I love when you tease me. All right, that's segment one right there. Reagan: Then Kavanaugh drops a concurrence pointing at a nineteen fifty two statute instead of the Constitution. Rush Lindell: Sounds like a lifeline for Congress, until you look at the vote count. Reagan: Exactly the kind of thing will separate the rhetoric from the reality on. Rush Lindell: And Stephen Miller called this whole ruling a knife. Knife wound in the American Republic. Reagan: Bold words for a ruling that might not even touch the birth tourism problem he's worried about. Rush Lindell: Ha ha! Then the GOP tries to respond, and folks, it's chaos. Rand Paul's got one plan. Reagan: Mike Lee's crew wants a different amendment. Tom Cotton's camp wants a statute instead. Nobody's on the same page. Rush Lindell: Ha ha! We'll even run a little Theater of the Absurd with that one later in the show. Reagan: And we'll close by weighing this against everything else the court did this term. this term. Rush Lindell: Let me tell you something. There's plenty here nobody's talking about yet. Reagan: So let's start with what actually happened Tuesday. Rush Lindell: But first, this hour is brought to you by Lear Capital, America's precious metals leader since 1997. Before we dive in, a quick reminder. We love hearing from you. If you have questions or topics you'd like us to cover, head to the link in the description and submit your question. We read every single one. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a decision. Six months of build-up and the Supreme Court just handed down the verdict on birthright citizenship. 6-3 they're calling it. Trump's executive order done, knocked out in the first round. Reagan: Hold on, Rush. 6-3 is the headline, but that's not the real number. Rush Lindell: Oh, here we go. Reagan: The order got struck down 6-3, Sure, but the actual constitutional question... Is birthright citizenship guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment? That was five four; Kavanaugh didn't join on those grounds. Rush Lindell: Wait, wait, wait, so one justice basically fought a different fight? Reagan: Exactly. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion, and according to SCOTUSblog, he said kids born to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are citizens at birth, tracing that straight back to the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment. Amendment: Rush Lindell: Robert's going full history professor on us. I love it. Reagan: But Kavanaugh peeled off; he agreed the order had to go just on statutory grounds instead. Rush Lindell: So it's not a clean knockout, it's a split decision with an asterisk. Speaker 3: Right. Reagan: That's the headline nobody's reading past paragraph three. Rush Lindell: Of course they're not. Meanwhile, guess who's already back on his phone? Reagan: Let me guess. Rush Lindell: According to Fox News, Trump posted on Truth Social demanding Congress... Or start to day on legislation to kill Reagan: Hmm. Rush Lindell: birth right citizenship for good. Reagan: Which legally is a strange ask given five justices just said the Fourteenth Amendment itself protects it. Rush Lindell: Strange ask, sure, but when has that ever stopped him? Reagan: Fair point. Rush Lindell: So now we've got a President demanding a law that may not survive the court that just ruled and a Justice who might have handed Congress the exact blueprint to try. Reagan: Which raises the real question: What did Kavanaugh actually write, and does it hold up? Rush Lindell: Building on that five four crack, let's talk about the guy who created it: Kavanaugh. Reagan: Right. He agreed the order had to die, just not for the reason everyone thinks. Rush Lindell: Oh this is where it gets fun. He didn't say the Fourteenth Amendment killed it. Reagan: He said a nineteen fifty two immigration statute did: the Immigration and Nationality Act, not the Constitution. Rush Lindell: So the amendment survives untouched, but Congress apparently left They left the side door open the whole time. Reagan: That's the argument; and according to Fox News, Kavanaugh went further: he basically wrote lawmakers a memo. Rush Lindell: A memo-I love it. Give me the quote. Reagan: TechTimes reported his concurrence said "Congress could amend that law or pass new legislation carving out exceptions to birthright citizenship. Rush Lindell: So a sitting justice just handed the GOP a permission slip: Sign here, restrict away. Reagan: That's one read, but slow down, because that permission slip has a landmine under it. Rush Lindell: Hold on, hold on-what land mine? Reagan: Five justices-the actual majority-just rejected the theory that the Fourteenth Amendment Rush Lindell: Wow. Reagan: lets you carve out exceptions at all. Rush Lindell: Right, the five four split we just walked through. Reagan: So if Congress passes a new statute restricting birthright citizenship, that same five justice bloc is sitting right there waiting. Rush Lindell: So Kavanaugh's road map leads to another lawsuit. Reagan: Slate ran a piece calling it "an opening for Trump's side. I'd hardly a win yet! Rush Lindell: An opening that just walks you back into the same brick wall. Reagan: That's the risk. Congress could pass something tomorrow, and it still has to survive the constitutional question, not the statutory one. Rush Lindell: It's a trap dressed up as a gift, classic Kavanaugh. Reagan: Well, I wouldn't call it a trap necessarily; he's inviting the political branches to act instead of the court dictating everything. Rush Lindell: Sure-inviting-sounds like handing someone a rope and calling it a gym membership. Worship. Reagan: That's one way to put it. Rush Lindell: And you know who's already treating this gift like Christmas morning? The White House. Reagan: Which is where this gets messy fast. Rush Lindell: Oh, it already is. Wait till you hear what Stephen Miller sang on Fox tonight. Building on that legal wall, Stephen Miller just went on Fox News and Reagan: Wow. Rush Lindell: called this ruling a deep knife wound in the heart of the American Republic. Reagan: A knife wound over an immigration statute? Rush Lindell: I'm calling him Doomsday Stephen from here on out. Man treats every SCOTUS loss like the fall of Rome. Reagan: It's not just him. J.D. Vance told Laura Ingraham the fight is hanging by a thread, and he's vowing to keep- To keep pushing. Rush Lindell: Hanging by a thread! Reagan, five justices just told you the thread snapped! Reagan: Right. And that's the contradiction nobody in the West Wing wants to sit with. Trump wants Congress to pass Rush Lindell: Something quick, simple, done. Reagan: Meanwhile Miller and Vance are out there treating it like a five alarm civilizational emergency. Rush Lindell: You can't have both; either this is a quick legislative fix or it's the end of the Republic; pick one. Reagan: Doomsday Stephen picked end of the Republic, obviously. Rush Lindell: There's substance buried in the theater, though. IBTimes reported administration officials are now looking hard at birth tourism-people flying in just to give birth on American soil. Reagan: Wait, that's actually a real thing? Rush Lindell: It happens, but here's the wrinkle: federal law already criminalizes the visa fraud schemes Miller's describing; no new amendment required for that piece. Reagan: So the knife wound speech is partly solving a problem that's already illegal? Rush Lindell: Partly, yeah. Doesn't mean birth tourism isn't real; it means the rhetoric's outrunning what the ruling actually changed. Reagan: Doomsday Stephen, ladies and gentlemen! diagnosing a wound the DOJ already has a bandage for. Rush Lindell: And that gap between rhetoric and remedy, it's about to get bigger once you see what Senate Republicans are proposing next. Reagan: Forget the birth tourism angle a second, Reagan; take me into the real fight, Rand Paul. Rush Lindell: He filed his amendment back in April, before the ruling even landed. The Washington Examiner reported it caps automatic citizenship to kids of citizens, legal permanent residents or service members. Reagan: Surgical; I like it. Rush Lindell: And he's not waiting on Congress. WorldNetDaily reported this week he's taking his state legislature by state legislature, Kentucky first, and, in his words, he wants to: To "get it done one state at a time. Reagan: The article hive back door-nobody does that-that's legislative archaeology! Rush Lindell: Rare, but he's serious about it. Reagan: Fine, camp one; who's writing with him? Rush Lindell: Mike Lee and Ron DeSantis. Lee posted minutes after the ruling that Congress needs an amendment. DeSantis called it a major defeat on Fox and said only an amendment or a future court flip fixes this. Reagan: And Johnson? Rush Lindell: Speaker Johnson told reporters birthright citizenship has been abused. used" Time reported that the same day, which tells you where his head's at. Reagan: So that's the Amendment Caucus; now hit me with Camp Three. Rush Lindell: This one doesn't touch the other two at all. Reagan: Go on. Rush Lindell: Tom Cotton's got his own bill, the Constitutional Citizenship Clarification Act. Fox News reported John Cornyn and Rick Scott are each pushing separate proposals targeting birth tourism. Reagan: Three senators, three bills, same problem. Rush Lindell: No Amendment in sight, just statute, statute, statute. Reagan: So let's tally it, Reagan: Trump wants one clean law today—no amendment; Miller and Vance want to keep swinging in court and on camera; Paul, Lee and DeSantis want to rewrite the Constitution itself. Rush Lindell: And Cotton, Cornyn and Scott are off writing bills nobody asked them to write. Reagan: Four camps, one party. Rush Lindell: And every camp thinks the other three are wasting the moment. Reagan: This isn't a party with a strategy; this is a party with a suggestion box. box. Rush Lindell: That's not far off, honestly. Reagan: The ruling didn't just cost Republicans a case, it showed they never agreed on the fix to begin with. Building on that mess-picture the room, windowless, Capitol Hill, every senator pitching a fix at once! Rush Lindell: Oh no! Reagan: Rand Paul's in the corner yelling 'Amendment!' Cotton slamming a statute on the table, DeSantis is on speakerphone and nobody's picked up. Rush Lindell: Meanwhile, Trump's bumper sticker says "No Amendment Necessary" and Paul's literally got "Amend the Constitution" on his truck. Reagan: Two bumper stickers, one party, zero coordination. Rush Lindell: It's a band that can't agree on the key, let alone the song. Reagan: Somebody's playing statute blues-somebody's doing amendment jazz. Rush Lindell: And our knife wound guy is just screaming over both of them. Reagan: Stop; I can't. Rush Lindell: Funny bit, doesn't fix anything, though. Reagan: No, but here's what gets me. Nobody in that room has said out loud which plan actually wins. Rush Lindell: Because they can't. Reagan: Hmm. Rush Lindell: Trump wants a law by Friday; Paul's out here building a whole Constitutional coalition state by state. Reagan: One guy's sprinting, the other guy's running a marathon, and they're both wearing the same jersey. Rush Lindell: And that's the generous read; the ungenerous read is nobody's actually counted the votes- Reagan: Votes! Right; that's the part that should scare everybody in that room. Rush Lindell: Because the real math behind any of these bumper stickers? It's brutal. Reagan: Yeah, let's go there. Rush Lindell: Since we're doing math, let's do the real math. Article 5, two-thirds of both chambers, then 38 states. Three-fourths have to ratify. Speaker 3: That's it? Easy. Rush Lindell: The last time that happened was 1992. Twenty-seventh Amendment. Congressional pay raises. Speaker 3: That's not exactly the Birthright Citizenship fight. Rush Lindell: No, and Congress hasn't cleared that bar for anything this size? Since Speaker 3: Fine, forget the Amendment-what about Cotton and Cornyn and statute? Rush Lindell: Same Wall. A new statute still lands in front of the same five-justice block that just struck the order down. Speaker 3: So Kavanaugh's invitation to legislate was basically a locked door with a welcome mat. Rush Lindell: The ACLU's Cody Wofsy said this week he doesn't expect a Reagan: Building on that math, let's zoom out: this is Trump's third gut punch from this court in one term. Rush Lindell: Right. As SCOTUSblog's own Term Wrap called it out, tariffs struck down, the Lisa Cook firing blocked, and now birthright citizenship. Reagan: Three swings, three misses-the nickname machine's getting a workout this year. Rush Lindell: But none of those losses actually settled anything. This one just kicked the ball into a Congress that can't agree on the yard. On the yard line. Speaker 3: Rand Paul's got his amendment, Cotton's got his bill, Nobody's got sixty votes. Rush Lindell: And now it's a mid term issue instead of a courtroom issue. Speaker 3: So here's my verdict: the court didn't end this fight, it just moved the ring. Rush Lindell: That's fair. The Constitution held, the politics didn't. Speaker 3: Politics never does. Rush Lindell: We'll see who actually shows up to vote on it. Reagan: So that's the hour! SCOTUS slaps down the Birthright order, Kavanaugh hands Congress a permission slip and the GOP immediately starts fighting itself over how to use it. Rush Lindell: Rand Paul wants an Amendment. Cotton wants a statute. Nobody's got the votes for either. Reagan: Meanwhile, Stephen Miller's out there talking knife wounds again. Rush Lindell: The real story isn't But the ruling, it's that the fight just moved to a Congress that can't agree on lunch. Reagan: The Court didn't end this fight, folks. It just handed it somewhere messier. Rush Lindell: And that's worth watching heading into the midterms. Reagan: If you liked this hour, subscribe, leave us five stars, tell a friend who needs to hear it. Rush Lindell: New episodes every weekday. Reagan: Yeah, I'm Rush. Rush Lindell: I'm Reagan. Reagan: We'll see you tomorrow.