The Great America Show - February 20, 2026


Trump goes to WAR with SCOTUS and Imposes Brand New Tariffs!


Episode Stats


Length

33 minutes

Words per minute

174.18692

Word count

5,761

Sentence count

396

Harmful content

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The Supreme Court strikes down President Trump's tariffs on China in a 6-3 ruling. What does this mean for the future of the case and what does it mean for our economy? What will happen to the money that has been collected so far? And what will the Supreme Court do about it?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 We do. We've got a very fractured opinion, but initially what it says, we know it's authored
00:00:08.100 the primary opinion by the chief justice and says essentially that this IEPA, this law
00:00:13.420 that grants the president emergency powers did not, it looks like by this first blush
00:00:18.360 reading by justice, the chief justice here, does not give him the power to levy these
00:00:25.560 tariffs that he's levied. Part of this initial opinion says the words regulate an importation.
00:00:31.620 The president says that gives him the independent power to impose tariffs on imports from any
00:00:36.320 country, any product, any rate, any time. These words, it says, cannot bear such weight.
00:00:41.420 We know we've got a dissent by Justice Kavanaugh, by Thomas and Alito, it looks like. And those
00:00:46.040 were the three we thought during the arguments, if anyone would be persuaded to allow the president
00:00:50.920 to move forward with these tariffs, they would be the ones to do it. So at first blush, like
00:00:55.140 I said, there are multiple parts and concurrences to this opinion, but it looks like what the
00:00:59.440 primary holding is going to be is that these tariffs cannot be used in the way that the
00:01:04.060 president had tried to use them. Let me get, get you to the closing paragraph that we have
00:01:09.480 in this initial opinion here. It says the president asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally
00:01:14.900 impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration and scope in light of the breadth, history and
00:01:19.960 constitutional context of that asserted authority. He must identify clear congressional
00:01:24.760 authorization to exercise it. Meaning if he wants to do it, he's got to show that Congress
00:01:29.360 has allowed him to do it. But they say IEPA, this emergency powers law contains no reference
00:01:34.640 to tariffs or duties. The government points to no statute and was Congress use the word
00:01:39.960 regulate to authorize taxation. And until now, no president has ever read IEPA to confer such
00:01:45.620 powers. We claim no special competence in matters of economics or foreign affairs, but we claim only
00:01:50.860 as we must the limited role assigned to us by article three of the constitution, fulfilling
00:01:56.540 that role. We hold that IEPA does not authorize the president to impose tariffs. We'll keep reading.
00:02:03.140 That is the first blush authored by the chief justice, John Roberts.
00:02:06.720 There you have it, folks. Welcome to The Great America Show. Happy Friday. Thank you so much for
00:02:11.380 spending your Friday with us here on The Great America Show. We know, as always, there's so many
00:02:15.480 places for you guys to go, so we appreciate you spending it here with us on The Great America Show.
00:02:20.440 What you heard right there was a rebuke from the Supreme Court today, which we sort of expected,
00:02:25.240 according to all the prediction markets, they had it at about 70 to 90, depending on the time in the last
00:02:30.140 few months, 70 to 90 percent chance that the Supreme Court was going to rule against President Trump in this
00:02:35.380 IEPA ruling, 6-3 decision, conservative justices, Alito, Thomas, and Kavanaugh siding with President
00:02:43.260 Trump, whereas the disgraced John Roberts, Coney Barrett has been the most underwhelming person,
00:02:49.380 and Gorsuch has been pretty reasonably good siding with the Marxist Dems and the liberals in this case.
00:02:58.340 Now, in May, the Court of International Trade in New York said that President Trump had exceeded his
00:03:03.180 authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economics Power Act, also known as IEPA, of 1977.
00:03:11.320 The order back then halted President Trump's 30 percent tariff on China, 25 percent tariff on some goods
00:03:16.560 imported from Mexico and Canada, and the 10 percent universal tariffs on most goods going into the United States.
00:03:23.400 Now, in just a few moments, we're going to be joined by Professor William Jacobson,
00:03:27.820 Professor Cornell Law, to get his take on where President Trump goes from here.
00:03:33.440 Can he fight these tariffs?
00:03:34.960 Can he fight them further past the Supreme Court?
00:03:38.200 What it means for his tariffs going forward?
00:03:40.020 And more importantly, what it means for the money that's already been collected so far,
00:03:46.380 which President Trump himself is questioning, how this thing is going to play out.
00:03:52.860 It's almost like not written by smart people.
00:03:56.220 And what they do, they don't even talk about that.
00:03:58.580 Your question is very basic.
00:03:59.840 That was the first question I asked also to make you feel good.
00:04:02.880 I said, what about all the money that we've taken in?
00:04:05.240 Sir, they don't discuss that.
00:04:07.040 How crazy is that?
00:04:10.200 What you're saying is, are you saying that you don't plan to honor refunds for companies that file for them?
00:04:15.580 I just told you the answer, right?
00:04:17.380 I told you the answer.
00:04:18.380 It's not discussed.
00:04:19.180 We'll end up being in court for the next five years.
00:04:21.200 So there you have it.
00:04:24.920 It's President Trump asking the questions that we all want to know.
00:04:28.220 Will this money have to be paid back in some form or another?
00:04:31.580 And that question was actually brought up in the Supreme Court to which Brett Kavanaugh had spoken about.
00:04:37.880 And we're going to take this up, like I said, with Professor William Jacobson to get the legality of it all to find out where this goes and what's going to happen.
00:04:45.640 But President Trump not seemingly caring what the Supreme Court had to say about this, just as Joe Biden didn't care about what the Supreme Court had to say when it came to student loan forgiveness.
00:04:56.260 President Trump today adding on an additional 10 percent tariff universally.
00:05:00.860 Take a listen.
00:05:01.580 Under the various tariffs authorities, so we can use other of the statutes, other of the tariff authorities, which have also been confirmed and are fully allowed.
00:05:15.520 Therefore, effective immediately, all national security tariffs under Section 232 and existing Section 301 tariffs, they're existing, they're there, remain in place, fully in place.
00:05:32.320 And in full force and effect today, I will sign in order to impose a 10 percent global tariff under Section 122, over and above our normal tariffs already being charged.
00:05:46.040 And we're also initiating several Section 301 and other investigations to protect our country from unfair trading practices of other countries and companies.
00:05:59.420 Thank you for your attention to this matter.
00:06:03.420 And I say quite simply, which I've said for a long time, make America great again.
00:06:10.020 And interestingly, we've already made it great, so I don't have to use that.
00:06:14.520 But I don't think we'll ever give up on MAGA.
00:06:16.400 MAGA is always going to be with us.
00:06:19.260 So President Trump ostensibly telling the Supreme Court, go to hell.
00:06:23.200 I don't care what you guys have to say.
00:06:25.380 This is my right as president of the United States.
00:06:27.980 And I want to ask Professor William Jacobson, when he joins us in just a few moments, the legality of that, because we saw Joe Biden tell the Supreme Court to go to hell when they came back and said, listen, you can't do this student loan forgiveness that you think you're going to do.
00:06:44.200 It's not constitutional.
00:06:46.200 You're spending money.
00:06:46.900 And the funny thing is, is was this was the actual like the reverse, whereas Joe Biden was spending the nation's money.
00:06:54.400 You had President Trump bringing money into this country to which I mean, it makes America look like a total laughingstock on the world stage.
00:07:02.960 You've got these foreign countries who we've charged tariffs to laughing in our face, saying, you know, you couldn't do it. 1.00
00:07:11.300 The whole thing's a joke.
00:07:14.020 So that's what ostensibly the Supreme Court did today.
00:07:18.780 A big smack in the face of America, a smack in the face of all Americans. 0.87
00:07:23.220 But President Trump warned of this months ago, warned what was going to happen should the Supreme Court decide to come down and do this is lost for our country.
00:07:33.420 Our country will be weak, pathetic and not not rich.
00:07:37.400 It will be, you know, I put us in a position, even negotiating, I negotiated seven peace deals because I was able to use tariffs without tariffs.
00:07:48.360 Many of those deals, half of those deals I wouldn't have been able to do.
00:07:51.820 It gives us tremendous negotiating power.
00:07:54.540 It gives us tremendous economic power.
00:07:56.720 And it's the same exact thing that they've done to us for 30 years.
00:08:00.140 And they're still doing it.
00:08:01.220 If that decision would be lost, it would be an economic disaster for the United States.
00:08:08.460 The United States will be the richest country.
00:08:12.900 If we lose that decision, we'll be one of the very poor countries.
00:08:17.480 So, like I said, it doesn't matter, I guess, what the Supreme Court thought was going to happen.
00:08:21.820 But this is what they decided.
00:08:23.960 This is the route that the Supreme Court decided to take.
00:08:26.740 Now, in other news, folks, because we're going to try to keep it a little bit light here.
00:08:31.220 On this beautiful Friday in America, President Trump, he's got some news for us.
00:08:37.280 And it's what we've all been waiting for.
00:08:39.600 President Trump posting this on Truth Social the other day, or last night, rather.
00:08:44.420 Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War and other relevant departments and agencies to begin the process of identifying and releasing government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life,
00:08:55.280 unidentified aerial phenomenons, UAPs, and unidentified flying objects, UFOs, more commonly known,
00:09:02.520 and any other information connected to these highly complex but extremely interesting, important matters.
00:09:08.700 God bless America.
00:09:10.860 So, we're going to find out soon, folks, if aliens are true or aliens are just a myth.
00:09:17.840 Now, as promised, folks, our guest today is Professor William Jacobson, a professor at law at Cornell Law School, a great American, and a brilliant legal scholar.
00:09:28.660 Professor, it's great to have you back with us here on The Great America Show.
00:09:31.600 I appreciate you joining us on this Friday.
00:09:33.580 The big news of the day, the Supreme Court, which we sort of expected this to happen,
00:09:38.680 punching down on President Trump and his tariffs, sort of embarrassing to me under the IEPA Act,
00:09:44.580 sort of embarrassing to me that we have a Supreme Court that came back and did this while all the other nations are laughing at us,
00:09:51.600 saying President Trump essentially can't do his job.
00:09:53.880 But President Trump doubled down and said, yeah, that's fine.
00:09:56.060 I'm adding another 10 percent tariff on top of it all.
00:10:00.180 We're not going to listen to you.
00:10:01.460 Your thoughts?
00:10:03.900 Well, you know, the new tariffs that he's imposed and the new authority he's invoking is not quite as broad
00:10:10.220 as what he was using before doesn't give him quite as much flexibility.
00:10:15.680 So I don't think he's, you know, refusing to follow the decision,
00:10:20.840 but he's saying I have alternative ways of getting what I want.
00:10:24.640 And so that's what he plans to do.
00:10:26.640 I think it was a close call.
00:10:28.500 I think if you listen to the oral arguments, you didn't know which way this one was going to go.
00:10:33.480 I think that Kavanaugh's dissent was right on, that it makes no sense that you have a president
00:10:40.780 who has the ability under the statute to regulate importation and that everybody agreed during the oral argument.
00:10:48.940 And I don't even think it's contested in the written decisions that the president could cut off trade completely with a country.
00:10:55.380 And Kavanaugh's point is if he can do that, you're telling us he can't do something less than that.
00:11:03.780 And that's what I think he used the term.
00:11:05.940 It doesn't make sense.
00:11:07.400 And I think that's true.
00:11:08.540 And I think that's the problem here.
00:11:09.940 Now, the majority addressed that and the majority said this is not a lesser remedy.
00:11:17.040 This is a completely different remedy that's not called for by the statute.
00:11:20.760 So it's not like, OK, he can do 10 or he can do one and this is five.
00:11:25.860 This is just something completely different.
00:11:27.960 But, you know, Kavanaugh and the two other justices weren't buying that.
00:11:31.400 And I think it was a weak decision.
00:11:32.820 It's not a precisely drafted statute.
00:11:36.200 It gives the president a lot of authority.
00:11:39.120 And, you know, was it as terrible a decision as he said it was?
00:11:43.580 He used some flamboyant language about the justices.
00:11:47.360 I don't know.
00:11:47.880 I think it could have gone either way, but I certainly think that it was the wrong decision
00:11:55.020 under the wording of this statute.
00:11:57.800 And it has huge ramifications.
00:11:59.720 Now, in fairness, the president took a risk.
00:12:02.820 I mean, all of these arguments were known at the time he invoked the statute.
00:12:07.800 So when he invoked it, he knew there was a risk of losing in the Supreme Court.
00:12:13.160 And it's President Trump.
00:12:14.440 So there's always a risk of losing and I'll put it in air quotes because it's just simply
00:12:19.000 based on, I mean, the man could cure cancer and they would go to the Supreme Court.
00:12:22.700 And I'm sort of being facetious, but I'm really not.
00:12:25.040 He could cure cancer.
00:12:25.920 They go to the Supreme Court and say he didn't have the he didn't have the power.
00:12:28.260 He didn't invoke the emergency powers to to cure cancer.
00:12:32.440 It's really sick.
00:12:33.740 You'd mentioned Kavanaugh, who, like you said, I think he put it very, very clearly on the statutory
00:12:39.200 authority. He said, quote, in light of the statutory text, longstanding historical practice
00:12:43.760 and relevant Supreme Court precedents, I would conclude that IEPA authorizes the president
00:12:48.540 to regulate important by imposing tariffs on foreign imports during declared national
00:12:55.020 emergencies.
00:12:55.480 Wrote very, very simply clear.
00:12:58.520 Follows up saying the court's decision today cannot be justified as a matter of statutory
00:13:02.680 interpretation.
00:13:03.540 Where is the big disconnect there where you've got the conservative justices going over with
00:13:10.500 the liberals?
00:13:11.060 I mean, I there wasn't a thought in my mind that you were ever going to get Ketanji Brown
00:13:14.800 Jackson or the rest of the Democrats to ever come over on President Trump's side because
00:13:19.300 they don't care about America.
00:13:21.340 And this is my opinion, not yours, of course.
00:13:24.120 But where do these three conservative justices, Roberts, Gorsuch and Coney Barrett, how do they
00:13:31.300 get to that point?
00:13:32.140 Well, I think it's an overreading of the text.
00:13:35.800 And Gorsuch made this overreading of the text in a case, I forget the name of the case, but
00:13:42.800 it was involving whether Title VII, which protects against discrimination on the basis of sex and
00:13:49.540 employment, applies to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
00:13:56.520 And he went into these mental gymnastics about reading the text.
00:13:59.700 And I think that's some of what went on here.
00:14:02.140 That they seem to go through various mental gymnastics to get to this result.
00:14:09.140 I don't attribute bad faith to them.
00:14:11.260 They just came out at a different way.
00:14:14.100 And, you know, the point is that the statute lists the things the president can do and tariffs
00:14:21.180 isn't one of them.
00:14:22.100 And so, you know, while I disagree with the decision, I agree with Kavanaugh and with Thomas
00:14:27.620 and with Alito.
00:14:29.140 I think their decision is right on target, which is you may hate the result.
00:14:33.440 You may not may hate the tariffs.
00:14:35.820 But that's not for us to say.
00:14:38.160 And I'm not a huge fan of the tariffs.
00:14:40.480 I mean, the cost of the coffee beans I purchased has gone through the roof because of them.
00:14:45.640 But that's OK.
00:14:46.400 That's a policy decision.
00:14:47.980 That's, you know, why we elect a president.
00:14:50.240 And that's, you know.
00:14:51.200 And so I don't know what the disconnect was.
00:14:54.120 I kind of hearken back with Roberts to the Obamacare decision in 2012, where he went through
00:15:02.000 literally, you know, mental gymnastics to call Obamacare's mandate, individual mandate,
00:15:09.400 part of the taxing authority, even though that really wasn't the argument people were making.
00:15:15.320 And, you know, so he held that it violated the Commerce Clause, but was within Congress's
00:15:19.900 taxing power.
00:15:21.060 And everybody's like, where'd you get that from?
00:15:23.340 And so I kind of feel, you know, with Gorsuch and Coney Barrett, that maybe they just overread
00:15:31.100 things.
00:15:32.160 But Roberts, you know, I think, unfortunately, has a history of coming out to what to a decision
00:15:38.860 that he thinks preserves the court's credibility and authority.
00:15:42.960 And in doing that, I think undermines the court's credibility and authority.
00:15:47.040 The truth of the matter is, I mean, the tariffs came from bad policy decisions over the course
00:15:57.440 of the last, I mean, five years, 10 years, 15 years, 26 years of bad policy decisions
00:16:04.500 from former presidents selling out this country to every other country out there.
00:16:09.460 So this is what it boiled down to for President Trump to come in and do this.
00:16:12.560 Obviously, he doesn't want to be sitting at the Supreme Court losing.
00:16:15.540 Obviously, he doesn't want to sit at the Supreme Court.
00:16:17.220 But if you look at our trade deficits now, they're falling like they've never fallen before
00:16:21.320 in the last 25 years.
00:16:22.800 He's got this thing under control.
00:16:24.520 He had rebates going out to the American people, should these have been withstood.
00:16:28.560 Now we're faced with the question, and this was something the Supreme Court, this is Kavanaugh
00:16:34.160 was dissenting, but this is a question now that the Supreme Court's pretty caught up on.
00:16:38.860 Quote, the United States may be required to refund billions of dollars to the importers
00:16:42.560 who paid the IEPA tariffs, even though some of the importers may have already passed on the
00:16:47.300 cost to consumers or others.
00:16:49.300 As with his knowledge and oral arguments, the refund process is likely to be a mess.
00:16:53.760 President Trump said today that it's going to be caught up in the courts for years.
00:16:56.820 But how do you even litigate something like that?
00:17:00.240 To me, it seems like the Supreme Court has just, no pun intended, written that off.
00:17:06.300 Well, there are going to be consequences, and I don't know how that refund process is going
00:17:11.140 to end up working, because as you indicate, a lot of this has already been passed on to
00:17:15.780 the consumer.
00:17:16.660 Is a particular importer who passed on the cost, like the coffee beans that I purchased, are
00:17:22.820 they going to write to me and say, hey, you're getting a refund?
00:17:26.140 No.
00:17:26.980 Okay.
00:17:27.840 And so it's going to be a really messy, messy process.
00:17:32.120 And I don't think anybody's going to see much money out of it anytime soon.
00:17:35.880 And it will last into the next administration.
00:17:39.080 All the fights over those refunds will probably not be resolved before 2028.
00:17:44.260 So let me ask you this.
00:17:45.420 You remember back, and you and I have spoken about this before on this show, Joe Biden and
00:17:49.760 his illegal forgiving of student loan forgiveness.
00:17:54.360 That makes sense.
00:17:55.460 His illegal student loan forgiveness.
00:17:57.440 And he said, to the hell with you, with the Supreme Court, I don't care what you guys say.
00:18:01.120 I'm forgiving student loans, and you're not going to do anything about it.
00:18:04.420 The Supreme Court did nothing about it.
00:18:05.780 Nobody did anything about it.
00:18:07.120 Who's to say President Trump can't do the same with the Supreme Court and says, Biden did
00:18:11.740 it.
00:18:11.940 So now it's my turn.
00:18:13.460 Yeah.
00:18:13.640 I mean, what Biden did is he found another way to do it.
00:18:16.600 Okay.
00:18:16.860 So he achieved the same result.
00:18:19.160 He didn't openly thumb his nose at the court and say, I don't accept your decision.
00:18:24.020 You're invalid.
00:18:24.940 You're illegitimate.
00:18:25.840 And Trump hasn't done that either.
00:18:27.860 They both said, I'm going to find another way to do it.
00:18:30.740 The problem is the way Biden found a way to do it was just as illegal as the first way.
00:18:35.880 Whereas Trump says, I'm going to, I have legal remedies.
00:18:38.580 I have legal paths available to me.
00:18:41.280 You shut one door, but there are other doors that are still open.
00:18:45.000 So that's not defiance of the court's order.
00:18:47.660 That's not defiance of the court's ruling.
00:18:49.640 Whereas with Biden, I think there was a very good argument that he was, in fact, defying
00:18:53.820 the court's ruling.
00:18:56.080 So he's now, like you said, and as you had mentioned, these tariffs that were struck down
00:19:00.980 for everyone panicking, don't panic.
00:19:03.480 They were only the ones that were struck down under IEPA and the sanctions there.
00:19:07.500 Many of his most significant tariffs were enacted under ordinary trade laws rather than on the
00:19:13.500 under any sort of Emergency Authorities Act, which is why a large number of them will still
00:19:17.580 stay in place today.
00:19:19.840 I think the biggest ones being shot down are the ones he'd done on Canada and Mexico for
00:19:24.660 their failure to, you know, tame the fentanyl that's being sent to this country.
00:19:28.860 Imagine the look that you put that on the Supreme Court.
00:19:32.540 But do you expect now this to go back to the Supreme Court under every other regulatory
00:19:39.580 process that President Trump invokes further tariffs on?
00:19:44.100 I'm sure I don't know if it will get to the Supreme Court, but there will be litigation.
00:19:48.140 I mean, one of the phenomenon of this Trump 2.0 is the onslaught, the absolute carpet bombing
00:19:55.660 of lawsuits against the administration.
00:19:58.820 And this was part of the plan in November, late November of 2024.
00:20:04.680 The New York Times, of all places, reported how Democrats were organizing to flood the
00:20:11.700 administration with lawfare, with lawsuits over everything, how they'd lined up hundreds
00:20:16.720 of attorneys.
00:20:17.740 And that's so will it be litigated?
00:20:19.660 Yes.
00:20:20.020 I don't think the Supreme Court's going to be inclined to take more tariff cases.
00:20:24.320 One of the things about the Supreme Court is once they decide an issue, they don't like
00:20:29.320 to keep revisiting it.
00:20:31.020 And I will say, while people look, Trump was critical of the Supreme Court and he has
00:20:36.160 lost some decisions.
00:20:38.180 He's batting about 90 percent in the Supreme Court.
00:20:41.280 Yeah, yeah.
00:20:42.480 He's been doing historically, like you said, pretty damn well against the high court in the
00:20:46.840 country, which means you say 90 percent.
00:20:49.520 I'd say 100 percent of what he's doing is is legitimate and legal.
00:20:53.440 You got to think, William, President Trump knew he was running, regardless of what he
00:20:58.220 said.
00:20:58.440 I think he knew he was running from the second that he left the White House.
00:21:01.040 OK, so he and Stephen Miller is one of the smartest people in Washington, D.C., regardless
00:21:06.040 of what anyone wants to say about him.
00:21:07.780 He is one of the smartest men in D.C.
00:21:09.800 Began working on this stuff the second he left office to make sure it was foolproof.
00:21:14.640 So 90 percent is pretty damn good.
00:21:16.480 I'd say it should be 100 percent.
00:21:19.140 So what does that look like now?
00:21:20.500 So President Trump now continues to enact tariffs under, you know, different regulatory
00:21:25.140 processes.
00:21:27.780 It doesn't make it.
00:21:28.960 So let's hypothetically say it doesn't make it back to the Supreme Court.
00:21:32.340 Does that mean he has a pretty damn good chance that everything goes on as usual?
00:21:38.240 I think if he's using other statutes, the answer is yes.
00:21:41.060 I mean, I think that that's right.
00:21:42.860 I don't think the Supreme Court is going to be inclined to hear more tariff cases unless
00:21:47.340 it's something that is, you know, blatant, that is novel.
00:21:52.200 Remember, this was a novel, what Trump did under this IEPA statute.
00:21:57.400 And so but the other ones, he says, OK, I've got plain vanilla tariffs I can increase and
00:22:03.340 I'm going to do that.
00:22:04.400 So I don't see this getting back to the Supreme Court.
00:22:07.320 You never know.
00:22:08.260 But I don't I don't see it happening.
00:22:09.640 I don't think they have the stomach for that.
00:22:11.740 Interesting.
00:22:12.300 So Jonathan Turley, who I regard you significantly higher than I do Jonathan Turley.
00:22:18.100 He's very good.
00:22:19.140 He's good when it comes to I regard you.
00:22:22.600 And I worked with Jonathan while I was at Fox News, but I regard you significantly higher
00:22:27.100 than him.
00:22:27.580 He had said that this is pretty much just a nothing burger.
00:22:31.080 The market's not really responding to it today too much that President Trump will be able
00:22:35.740 to prevail in other outlets.
00:22:37.280 So I guess that's that's good news.
00:22:39.380 The thing that scares me a little bit is the ruling against this means now we have another
00:22:44.940 big case coming up on the Supreme Court that we could probably expect this year.
00:22:47.560 And it's birthright citizenship.
00:22:48.980 And it's something that you and I have spoken about.
00:22:51.220 And it's something that scares the heck out of me because it makes a difference of us being
00:22:59.320 able to deport millions of people who are here illegally as opposed to them staying here 0.99
00:23:04.900 registering to vote.
00:23:05.820 And I mean, the Republicans could kiss their rear ends goodbye for the rest of history.
00:23:12.220 Yeah.
00:23:12.360 I mean, I think the birthright citizenship is much more important than the tariffs.
00:23:16.660 OK, it's about money.
00:23:18.320 OK.
00:23:19.040 And to some extent, presidential power and protecting industry.
00:23:23.140 None of that's unimportant.
00:23:24.420 But the birthright citizenship really goes to who we are as a country.
00:23:29.080 Are we a country where you are automatically a citizen if your mother flies in from wherever,
00:23:37.620 lands at Kennedy Airport or LAX, goes to the hospital, gives birth, flies back, you're all
00:23:44.440 of a sudden an American citizen.
00:23:45.800 And there's a lot of abuses.
00:23:47.320 There's been a lot of reporting on that.
00:23:49.000 So it really goes to who we are as a country.
00:23:51.940 And I think that that will not necessarily lead to more deportations because they're somewhat
00:23:57.280 different issues, but it will change the tenor of how we view ourselves.
00:24:03.460 And I think it's extremely important that we establish that if you are in the country illegally, 0.99
00:24:10.220 your children are not automatically citizens.
00:24:13.040 And that otherwise we're incentivizing what are sometimes referred to as anchor babies or
00:24:19.940 tourism, you know, babies, that sort of thing.
00:24:23.540 And I think that that's extremely important.
00:24:26.060 It sets the tone and the backdrop for the larger argument over illegal immigration.
00:24:32.620 So I think it would be extremely important if we establish that you've got to have a more
00:24:37.280 of a connection to the United States than merely passing through in order to have your children
00:24:43.700 be citizens.
00:24:44.860 And it would really put us back in how the rest of the world does it.
00:24:49.840 OK, nobody does this except for us.
00:24:52.760 Go figure.
00:24:59.060 How did we get into this situation in the first place?
00:25:01.780 At what point in history did it come to?
00:25:04.060 OK, anyone who's born here is fine.
00:25:07.360 I know it goes back to the times of slavery for the children of slaves who were born here.
00:25:13.320 But how did it progress so badly that it's literally what you said?
00:25:18.320 People drive across the border, plop out a baby and say, all right, welcome to America.
00:25:22.500 Here's your passport.
00:25:24.080 Yeah.
00:25:24.220 And then if you try to deport them, say you're separating us from our children.
00:25:27.380 OK, so it's it's just pernicious in so many ways.
00:25:30.980 How did we get here?
00:25:31.960 You know, it's like that boiling frog metaphor is by the time you get to where we are now,
00:25:39.220 you don't know how you got here, but it's been happening.
00:25:41.780 It's just a series of decisions, series of political narratives.
00:25:47.020 The narrative is that if you're born here, you're automatically a citizen.
00:25:51.740 Doesn't matter how you got here, how your parents got here.
00:25:54.200 And that just became common wisdom, became common narrative.
00:25:59.800 And nobody really questioned it for decades.
00:26:02.640 And then somebody said, well, wait a second.
00:26:05.780 Maybe that's not actually right.
00:26:08.000 Maybe that's not what the 14th Amendment meant.
00:26:11.480 And there is no case in the Supreme Court, contrary to what people think, that says if you are born here to parents who are illegally in the country, that you are a citizen.
00:26:24.960 There's no Supreme Court case that says that.
00:26:27.960 So but people assume there was.
00:26:29.660 I bet if you first of all, if you asked 100 people on the street, most of them would have no idea what you're talking about.
00:26:35.780 But of the ones who did, of the ones who did, I think they would all say, oh, yeah, that's the law.
00:26:41.940 And the point is, it may not be the law.
00:26:44.580 It's never been actually ruled on by the Supreme Court.
00:26:47.200 In the one case they always people always refer to had to do with Chinese immigrants.
00:26:52.340 But they were here as lawful, permanent resident aliens.
00:26:57.100 That's different.
00:26:58.220 We're talking about people who are here illegally or people who are merely passing through.
00:27:03.380 And there's a whole industry from China of, you know, birthright tourism where you fly to L.A.
00:27:11.040 and you stay a couple of months and you give birth.
00:27:13.740 And now you're the parent of an American citizen.
00:27:16.320 And from that comes a lot of different benefits.
00:27:20.580 I mean, I would say so.
00:27:22.020 You can name them off health care or schooling or fire or whatever it may be.
00:27:28.040 It's so sick.
00:27:58.020 Bader Ginsburg gave to the Republicans and dying while the Democrats in power.
00:28:03.440 The only thing I'm terrified is President Trump's track record on the Supreme Court justices has been a little bit wishy-washy.
00:28:10.900 Coney Barrett has, I think, sided with the Democrats more than I could have ever expected her.
00:28:15.620 Kavanaugh, another one.
00:28:17.120 Gorsuch was just surprising today.
00:28:18.880 Gorsuch has been the one who's been really damn solid.
00:28:22.460 Your thoughts?
00:28:23.680 It kind of makes me nervous.
00:28:25.220 Yeah, I think, first of all, I hate to see Alito go or Thomas.
00:28:31.900 I mean, these are two giants.
00:28:33.840 OK, but nobody wants them to pull a Ginsburg.
00:28:38.140 We don't know what's going to happen even in the Senate elections.
00:28:41.520 I think the presumption is the Republicans will hang on.
00:28:46.200 But this could be a problem sooner than we think.
00:28:48.480 If by some reason, and it's not impossible, it's unlikely but not impossible, the Democrats were to regain control of the Senate, Trump's not going to get any judges through.
00:28:58.420 And so we're at risk not in 2026.
00:29:02.180 I think it's a small risk and it's one people may be willing to take.
00:29:06.560 But 2028, who knows?
00:29:08.560 That's like a century from now.
00:29:10.300 And, you know, I think that he probably is cognizant.
00:29:14.200 And I have to believe that Thomas is thinking of the same thing.
00:29:17.220 I don't know that for a fact.
00:29:18.680 But how can you not?
00:29:19.980 How can you not if you're in your late 70s and you're you know that, you know, if a Democrat is elected, you may not be here four years on.
00:29:30.940 How can you hang on?
00:29:31.960 And that was the Ginsburg thing.
00:29:33.320 And that the liberals are furious at Ginsburg for having done that.
00:29:38.300 And I don't know, but it will be a shame.
00:29:41.640 And I don't know if there's another Alito out there or if there's another Thomas out there.
00:29:46.400 There are, but he's going to have to fight to get them through.
00:29:50.920 Yeah.
00:29:51.520 And the right advisors.
00:29:53.100 I don't know if it's ever been said before, but Clarence Thomas was a big fan of Luce.
00:29:58.540 They were set on the same foundation.
00:29:59.860 He was a huge fan of Luce.
00:30:01.060 So he's one I really don't want to see him go.
00:30:03.100 I wish Ted Cruz would put his ego aside for presidential aspirations.
00:30:08.040 He's never going to be president of the United States.
00:30:10.060 I wish he would put that aside.
00:30:11.660 And it's been reported before that President Trump had offered him a Supreme Court spot.
00:30:15.680 Take the damn thing, Ted.
00:30:17.080 He would be so solid and so good on the Supreme Court.
00:30:20.860 Better than possibly any judge he can go out there and find.
00:30:24.980 He knows the issues better than anybody.
00:30:26.440 He's just got to put his damn ego aside.
00:30:28.620 You get the last word here.
00:30:29.860 Yeah, I think that on the next go around, Trump is going to look more towards the politics of whoever he nominates.
00:30:36.560 He didn't really look at that.
00:30:38.200 He looked the first time around.
00:30:39.500 He looked at their legal bona fides.
00:30:41.660 And all of the ones he appointed had excellent legal credentials and are smart people, but not certainly political people.
00:30:50.360 And I think he'll do what the Democrats did with Jackson, pure political, you know.
00:30:57.380 And so I think the next nomination is going to be might be somebody like a Ted Cruz who is considered politically reliable.
00:31:05.140 And it should be Ketanji Brown Jackson, I have to say, is probably one of the most embarrassing.
00:31:11.480 Situations I've seen in a long time, whether it be her at the Grammys or I'm not even a lawyer.
00:31:18.560 OK, and I don't pretend to be a lawyer.
00:31:20.340 That's why I bring smart people like you on the show to talk about this.
00:31:23.160 But sitting there listening to her struggle about some of the simplest things is just such an embarrassment to the institution.
00:31:30.720 It really is.
00:31:31.960 I mean, you know, she has written, you know, that, you know, she writes dissents that even Sotomayor won't sign on to.
00:31:39.340 OK, so when you've lost Sonia Sotomayor, you know, you're really out there.
00:31:45.740 OK, and there was one I don't know if I talked about it on your show or not, but there was one where Ketanji Brown,
00:31:52.440 Brown Jackson wrote a dissent which was so off the wall that Sotomayor wrote a concurring opinion, criticizing it.
00:32:02.700 So, yeah, it was a very weak pick, very unfortunate.
00:32:06.180 But they got what they wanted and hopefully they won't get any other picks anytime soon.
00:32:12.320 Charity case.
00:32:13.400 Professor William Jacobson, you get the last word here.
00:32:15.920 Let them know about your organization and what you're up to these days.
00:32:19.960 Sure.
00:32:20.340 So the main website is LegalInsurrection.com.
00:32:24.300 That's our politics and law website.
00:32:26.040 But we also have something called the Equal Protection Project, EqualProtect.org, where we have filed over 275 legal challenges to discriminatory DEI programs at universities.
00:32:39.400 So EqualProtect.org is a good place to find us.
00:32:43.000 EqualProtect.org.
00:32:43.820 Professor William Jacobson, always a delight to talk to you.
00:32:45.920 Have a great weekend, my friend.
00:32:46.960 Take care.
00:32:47.860 Bye bye.
00:32:48.680 Thanks, everybody, for being with us today here on The Great America Show.
00:32:51.260 I hope you all have a great weekend, a blessed weekend with your loved ones, with your friends, with your family.
00:32:55.220 We'll see you back here Monday.
00:32:56.540 Truth, justice, and the American way.
00:32:58.460 Until then, may God bless you.
00:33:00.080 May God bless America.
00:33:01.100 And may God bless the great Blue Dobbs.
00:33:03.060 Have a great night, everybody.
00:33:03.820 We'll see you on Monday.