On June 30th, 2026, the Supreme Court struck down President Trump's executive order that sought to end birthright citizenship for all children born in the United States to non-citizens. In a 6-3 ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion, and was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kega, and Amy Coney Barrett, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurring in the judgment but dissenting only in part.
00:00:00.000In this 25th anniversary year of September 11th, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation continues to honor America's heroes.
00:00:05.780Heroes like Fire Lieutenant Michael Wells, who was inspired by 9-11 to serve his community.
00:00:10.940After 14 dedicated years of service, he lost his battle with occupational cancer, leaving behind his wife, Katie, and their three children.
00:00:18.040Tunnel to Towers honored Lieutenant Wells by paying off the family's mortgage in recognition of his sacrifices.
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00:01:11.120Welcome into the Stone Zone, where you can get political news and analysis that you can't get anywhere else.
00:01:18.580It was back on January 20, 2025, that President Donald Trump moved to significantly restrict birthright citizenship by signing Executive Order 14160 entitled Protecting the Means and Value of American Citizenship.
00:01:38.100The order directed federal agencies, including the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Social Security Administration, to stop recognizing automatic U.S. citizenship for children born in the United States to mothers who were either illegally present or here on temporary visas, such as a student visa or a work visa, a tourist visa, or a visa waiver program visa.
00:02:07.480If their farmers were not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, the policy was set to apply to births occurring 30 days after the executive order was signed, which would have been mid to late February of 2025.
00:02:23.440In essence, the executive order sought to reinterpret the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause
00:02:31.660by denying birthright citizenship to an estimated 250,000 U.S.-born children annually
00:02:39.900based on their parents' immigration status.
00:02:43.620Now, multiple federal courts quickly issued preliminary injunctions blocking the order nationwide.
00:02:50.820The lower courts ruled it unconstitutional and inconsistent with both the 14th Amendment and the existing federal statute, 8 U.S.C. Section 1401.
00:03:05.020These injunctions remained in place throughout this ongoing litigation.
00:03:09.620But on June 30th of 2026, in a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court struck down Executive Order 14160 as signed by President Trump, firmly upholding birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment.
00:03:28.400This shocking ruling in Trump versus Barbera rejected the Trump administration's attempt to limit automatic citizenship for children born in the United States.
00:03:40.600Not surprisingly, Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion, and he was joined by Justices Sotomayor, Elena Kega, Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, and Kajani Jackson Brown.
00:03:57.540with Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurring in the judgment, but dissenting only in part.
00:04:05.280The court held that children were born in the United States to parents are unlawfully or temporarily present,
00:04:11.080are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and therefore are indeed citizens at birth.
00:04:19.400The decision reaffirms the text of the 14th Amendment's Citizen Clause that says specifically,
00:04:25.320All persons born are nationalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States.
00:04:35.200The decision draws heavily on the 1898 precedent, the United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which affirmed birthright citizenship for the children of Chinese immigrants.
00:04:48.600Roberts specifically emphasized that citizenship then and now was the right to have rights to freely participate in our political community.
00:04:57.260The framers of the 14th Amendment extended that promise to every free-born person in this land, and he said, we keep that promise today.
00:05:07.620This was quite a blow to the Trump administration.
00:05:10.840Dissenting, however, Justices Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito,
00:05:17.480argued for greater executive and congressional flexibility on immigration-related citizenship matters.
00:05:24.040Gorsuch and Alito also wrote their own separate dissents.
00:05:27.880This ruling, unfortunately, preserves the status quo for hundreds of thousands of children born each year in the United States
00:05:36.160to parents who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.
00:05:42.160Birthright citizenship remains enshrined in the 14th Amendment
00:06:01.920such as for children of foreign diplomats.
00:06:05.020Now, in my opinion, the Supreme Court's decision rejecting President Trump's effort to limit birthright citizenship is more than just a simple legal defeat.
00:06:15.060It's a clarion call for common sense Americans who have long argued that America's immigration systems become untethered from both constitutional fidelity and plain old common sense.
00:06:29.680If conservatives respond with resignation rather than resolve, they will have misunderstood the significance of this very moment.
00:06:38.220If they respond with legislative action, constitutional advocacy, and an unapologetic defense of American sovereignty, this ruling may ultimately become the catalyst that reshapes the debate for the next generation.
00:06:52.600President Trump's executive order represented the most ambitious attempt in modern history
00:06:57.220to revisit the meaning of the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment.
00:07:02.540Signed on the very first day of his second administration,
00:07:05.880the order had tried to direct the federal government to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the United States
00:07:13.120when neither parent was an American citizen or an unlawful permanent resident.
00:07:19.700It also applied to children whose mothers were unlawfully present or whose parents were in the country on temporary visas, as I said earlier, including tourist visas, student visas, temporary workers, and so on.
00:07:32.160The administration argued that the constitutional phrase subject to the jurisdiction thereof had been interpreted too broadly for more than a century and that the 14th Amendment was intended primarily to guarantee citizenship to the formerly enslaved after the Civil War, not to create an unlimited incentive for tourist citizenship, which is what we have today, and this torrent of unlawful immigration.
00:08:02.160But unfortunately, the Supreme Court has now rejected that interpretation
00:08:06.300and reaffirmed the longstanding understandings established by the 1898 decision in the United States v. Wong,
00:08:14.400holding that every child born on American soil is constitutionally entitled to citizenship regardless of the immigration status of the parents.
00:08:23.900As I said, the court was divided along liberal and conservative lines,
00:08:28.860but with Amy Comey Barrett, again a Trump appointee, disappointing Trump supporters and conservatives with her decision.
00:08:39.120Clarence Thomas, who remains the most brilliant member of the court, argued in an extensive dissent spanning nearly 90 pages,
00:08:47.360arguing that the court's interpretation departed from the original public meaning of the citizenship clause
00:08:52.640and gave insufficient weight to the historical understanding of jurisdiction.
00:08:56.540But unfortunately, he and the other dissenters were in the minority.
00:09:02.300Collectively, the dissenters contended that the majority had elevated precedence over the original constitutional meaning and intent,
00:09:10.160and foreclosed an important constitutional debate that they deserved believed renewed examination.
00:09:16.960For Republicans, this decision carries profound political implications for the long term,
00:09:21.820extending far beyond the courtroom today.
00:09:24.240It effectively places responsibility back where the Constitution often places difficult national questions in the elected branches of government.
00:09:33.560So if the judiciary will not reinterpret the citizenship clause, then conservatives must decide whether to impose congressional legislation,
00:09:42.920constitutional amendments, or broader immigration reforms designed to address the incentives that encourage unlawful entry into the United States.
00:09:51.340That's why this November's midterm elections are so very important.
00:09:56.820Without Republican majorities in the House and Senate, the idea of a legislative fix, a legislative restatement of these questions is sadly unthinkable.
00:10:08.680No nation can long endure if its immigration laws become merely advisory.
00:10:15.240Every sovereign state possesses not only the authority, but the obligation to determine who may enter, who may remain, and under what conditions citizenship may ultimately be acquired.
00:10:27.540Borders are not just arbitrary lines set upon a map.
00:10:32.020They are the visible manifestation of national sovereignty, much as the walls of your home distinguish the private sanctuary from public thoroughfare.
00:10:40.860When those boundaries lose meaning, the very concept of citizenship begins to erode.
00:10:47.320Reasonable people can disagree about whether birthright citizenship itself encourages unlawful immigration, but the evidence is debated.
00:10:55.900That is not disputed. It is that organized criminal cartels exploit this weakness for border enforcement to facilitate human smuggling, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and other transactional crimes.
00:11:09.500Federal authorities have long repeatedly warned that terrorist organizations and hostile foreign intelligence services seek opportunities to exploit weaknesses in our immigration system, but those threats exist independently of today's constitutional ruling and remain central concerns for national security policymakers.
00:11:28.980President Trump himself has consistently argued that America's immigration system had been manipulated by sophisticated criminal organizations that profit from porous borders while placing extraordinary burdens upon law enforcement, schools, hospitals, and yes, taxpayers.
00:11:47.100His administration has maintained the strong border security, aggressive deportation of criminal aliens, expanded interior enforcement, and strict eligibility standards for immigration benefits, representing essential components for restoring public confidence in the rule of law.
00:12:05.080Although today's ruling forecloses one constitutional avenue, it leaves intact many other executive and legislative tools available to future administrations.
00:12:16.520Republicans and Trump supporters should resist the temptation today towards despair.
00:12:22.960The American constitutional system has repeatedly witnessed controversial judicial decisions become the beginning rather than the conclusion of a political movement.
00:12:33.320For example, the abolitionists did not surrender after the Dred Scott decision.
00:12:38.480The civil rights movement did not cease after the incorrectly decided Plessy v. Ferguson.
00:12:44.200So constitutional interpretations evolved through public debate, legislation where permissible, constitutional amendments where necessary, and the democratic process itself.
00:12:55.240The border lesson here is unmistakable.
00:12:58.660If common sense people believe that birthright citizenship should be narrowed, then they must persuade the American people rather than relying exclusively upon executive action, in this case an executive order.
00:13:11.020They must build a historical case, a constitutional case, and a moral case capable of sustaining legislative reform by the other branch of government.
00:13:22.140And if necessary, the extraordinary demanding process requires the amendment to the Constitution itself while America has always welcomed lawful immigration.
00:13:33.300Indeed, generations of immigrants have enriched this country beyond measure.
00:13:38.160My own people came here from both Italy and Hungary, so we are a nation of immigrants.
00:13:44.660Yet, immigration without ordinary legal process ceases to be immigration in the traditional American sense and instead becomes administrative chaos.
00:13:55.580Citizenship, my view, is the highest civic honor a Republican bestow.
00:14:00.140It should neither be trivialized nor detached from the enduring principle of national allegiance, constitutional order, and the rule of law.
00:14:09.660Today's ruling, which I found shocking but not totally unpredictable, represents a significant judicial setback for President Trump and for those common-sense citizens who supported his constitutional interpretation.
00:14:24.340It is not, however, the final chapter in America's constitutional debate.
00:14:29.080It is merely the latest chapter in a constitutional conversation that will continue whenever citizens remain determined to preserve both the generosity and the sovereignty of the American people.
00:14:42.400On the same day that the Supreme Court issued this ruling, the news was not all bad from the Supreme Court.
00:14:48.260They did hand a major victory to fairness in women's sports Tuesday, upholding laws in Idaho and West Virginia that keep biological males out of female athletic competition.
00:15:01.600In a 6-3 ruling, the court overturned lower court decisions that had sided with transgender athletes challenging those state protections.
00:15:10.740It was Justice Brett Kavanaugh writing for the majority that states may preserve women's and girls' sports for biological females only, ruling that such laws do not violate Title IX of the Constitution.
00:15:24.900When we come back, we'll have more about these vexing Supreme Court decisions right here in the Stone Zone.
00:17:18.340Here's a story that is not the slightest bit surprising.0.75
00:17:21.340Democrat U.S. Senator Ruben Gallegos of Arizona is now under federal investigation
00:17:26.860for suspected campaign finance violations just days after the Senate Ethics Committee
00:17:32.600dismissed a separate complaint against him.
00:17:35.160The truth is that Ruben Gallegos makes Eric Swalwell look like Mother Teresa.
00:17:40.380The Justice Department probe reportedly stems from a whistleblower complaint out of Southern California that focuses on whether Gallego's improperly used campaign money for his personal use.
00:17:54.200Gallego denies all wrongdoing, says the allegations, of course, are politically motivated.
00:17:58.940That's what the politicians always say.
00:19:30.180this is the stone zone now get in the zone it's the stone zone a man who's gone through hell
00:19:40.320but he's kept going and he's smart and he's strong and people love him not everybody but
00:19:46.680people love him and respect him roger stone where's roger stone here's roger stone
00:19:52.220Welcome back into the Stone Zone. I'm your host, Roger Stone.
00:19:58.740For decades, the poisonous river of cocaine flowing into the United States has not respected borders, languages, or governments.
00:20:06.740It has carried with it shattered families, violent street gangs, organized crime, corruption, and the slow corrosion of national security on both sides of the hemisphere.
00:20:17.200America cannot win the war against narcotics unless the nations where those drugs are cultivated, refined, and exported stand shoulder to shoulder with us in a common cause.
00:20:29.280That's why the election in Colombia of their new president represents far more than a routine transfer of political power.
00:20:36.040It signals the emergence of a government that understands that narcotics trafficking is not merely a criminal enterprise, but an act of economic warfare, social sabotage, and terrorism directed against free societies such as those in the United States.0.80
00:20:53.200By declaring uncompromising war on the narco-terrorists0.57
00:20:57.000who have held vast regions of Colombia hostage for generations,
00:21:01.000the new administration has extended its hand to the United States
00:21:04.560in a partnership rooted not in ideology,
00:21:08.620but in the mutual defense of civilization, sovereignty, and yes, the rule of law.
00:21:13.780Now, history teaches that nations rarely perish from invasion
00:21:21.380Rome was not conquered in a single day. Its institutions were hollowed out, its confidence diminished, and its enemies emboldened long before the barbarians breached the gates.
00:21:33.360The same lesson has echoed throughout the modern era when governments have surrendered territory, sovereignty, or political will to criminal enterprises masquerading as revolutionary moments.
00:21:46.260Today, thank God, Colombia stands at another such historic crossroads.
00:21:52.220The election of Abelardo de la Esparrella marks one of the most consequential political shifts in the Western Hemisphere in decades.
00:22:01.200After years in which drug cartels, Marxist guerrillas, criminal syndicates, and narco-terrorist organizations have expanded their influence across large portions of Colombia,
00:22:12.180The Colombian people have elected an outsider, a president, who has declared that the accommodation with the narco-terrorists has entered and a new era of confrontation has begun.
00:22:24.160During and following his victory, de la Asporella has made unmistakably clear that his administration intends to treat narco-terrorists not as political actors worthy of endless negotiations, but by enemies of the Colombian state to be defeated.
00:22:39.760He's pledged a sweeping security crackdown, closer cooperation with the United States, and a renewed campaign against criminal organizations who have profited from campaign production of cocaine, extortion, kidnapping, and political intimidation.
00:22:56.180His incoming government was also signaling that Colombia will now cooperate more closely with American-led regional efforts aimed at strengthening the fight against organized crime and narcotics trafficking.
00:23:09.760This declaration is not merely a change in rhetoric.
00:23:12.700It represents a rejection of the dangerous illusion that peace can be purchased through endless concessions to violent criminal organizations.
00:23:22.160Throughout history, governments that refuse weakness or confuse weakness with compassion inevitably invite greater violence.
00:23:30.280I think it was Winston Churchill who warned Britain that choosing dishonor over resistance could ultimately produce both dishonors and war.
00:23:38.620Colombia has lived through precisely that strategic cycle for generations.
00:23:43.080Now, the history of Colombia is inseparable from the scourge of narco-terrorism.
00:23:47.920Pablo Escobar transferred the Medellin cartel into the headquarters of one of the largest criminal enterprises the world has ever known.
00:23:55.920His cartel assassinated judges, murdered journalists, bombed civilian airliners, bribed politicians, and openly challenged the authority of the Colombian government.
00:24:06.800Escobar understood an enduring truth about organized crime.
00:24:11.680Criminal enterprises flourish when governments hesitate to use lawful force against them.
00:24:17.920Although Escobar himself was eventually eliminated, his empire did not immediately disappear.
00:24:24.100It fragmented into new cartels, new trafficking networks,
00:24:28.340and increasingly sophisticated alliances with Marxist guerrilla organizations such as FARC and the ELN.
00:24:34.860Drug trafficking became the financial engine, I should say, powering insurgency, terrorism, kidnapping, illegal mining, human trafficking, and corruption across enormous swaths of that country.
00:24:50.480Even after the celebrated peace agreements of the last decade, numerous dissident factions and criminal organizations continue to expand their operations, while coca cultivation and cocaine production actually reached historic highs.
00:25:06.560Armed groups now compete for territory, intimidate entire communities, and exploit illegal economies that generate billions of dollars annually.
00:25:15.260The consequences extend far beyond Colombia's borders.
00:25:19.840Cocaine flooding into North America fuels addiction, organized crime, money laundering, human misery, and violence today through the United States.
00:25:30.000Every kilogram that leaves Colombia finances additional weapon purchases, corrupts more public officials, recruits more young criminals, and strengthens transnational criminal organizations operating across this hemisphere.
00:25:43.900The poison that begins in the jungles and the laboratories of South America too often end up in American emergency rooms, our county morgues, devastated neighborhoods, and grieving homes where parents wonder how their children were swallowed by an invisible empire of narcotics and death.
00:26:03.220President Donald Trump has long argued that the drug cartels should no longer be viewed as ordinary criminal enterprises,
00:26:10.320but now should be defined as terrorist organizations that threaten our national sovereignty.
00:26:15.920That philosophy appears increasingly to be influenced by governments through Latin America.
00:26:22.160Ecuador has intensified its military operations against the cartel organizations.
00:26:26.920El Salvador, of course, has demonstrated that aggressive law enforcement can dramatically reduce organized criminal violence.
00:26:35.100Argentina has embraced stronger national security policies.
00:26:39.420And now Colombia appears poised to join the growing coalition dedicated to restoring state authority over territories long ago surrendered to criminal control.
00:26:50.080Now, critics will undoubtedly warn that such policies are too aggressive.
00:26:54.500They'll invoke concerns about civil liberties or political polarization and executive authority.
00:27:02.100Those concerns deserve thoughtful consideration in every constitutional republic.
00:27:07.160Yet history also teaches that liberty cannot survive
00:27:10.900where criminal organizations become more powerful than legitimate government.
00:27:51.240Their warnings now remain strikingly relevant today, as narco-terrorist networks operate less like street gangs and more like hostile shadow governments with their own armies, treasuries, intelligence networks, propaganda machines, and, sadly, political patrons.
00:28:09.560Colombia's new president, I was one of the first to spot him,
00:28:12.660first one to urge the president to endorse him,
00:28:16.920in my view, inherits an enormous challenge.
00:31:11.800first brought to the public consciousness by Elon Musk.
00:31:15.760In the meantime, a new national poll shows that America voters
00:31:19.160support President Trump's peace deal to end the Iranian war
00:31:22.120and the numbers suggest voters are rewarding him for rejecting the neocon calls for another prolonged conflict.
00:31:29.900Despite recent fraying of the agreement, according to the big data poll yesterday,
00:31:35.68062% of likely voters support the Memorandum of Understanding signed early this month between the United States and Iran
00:31:42.120and support is particularly among Trump voters at the 77% range.
00:31:47.680But even half of Kamala Harris' voters back this deal.
00:31:51.180The agreement includes 14 points aimed at ending military operations on both sides, including reopening the Strait of Hormuz, easing some financial restrictions on Iran, and creating a 60-day path towards a final deal on Iran's nuclear program.
00:32:07.180Poll also shows President Trump's approval rating improving. Among likely voters, up to 44.4% now say they somewhat or strongly approve his performance, which is up from 40.7% in May.
00:32:22.660Big poll director Rich Barris, a guy I have a lot of respect for,
00:32:26.440said that voters consistently prefer a focus on domestic issues rather than foreign policy,
00:32:31.520which is not to say that foreign adversaries don't need to be confronted,
00:32:35.280but that the culture of nonstop war has left the public understandably with a bad taste in their mouths.
00:32:41.060Barris noted that the political picture now looks better for Trump and Republicans
00:32:46.200as long as peace is not sabotaged by the military-industrial complex.
00:32:52.140President Trump has demonstrated strength, and he's crushed Iran's nuclear capability0.63
00:32:56.040and sent regime leaders to meet Allah.0.65
00:32:59.480Now voters want secure borders, lower costs, safer streets, and leaders focused on American interests.
00:33:06.860With Trump intent upon keeping the peace with Iran as long as possible,
00:33:10.400while refocusing Washington on problems at home,
00:33:13.620Republicans may have an unbeatable message heading into November's midterms.
00:33:55.040I think both because of the Supreme Court decisions regarding congressional redistricting,
00:33:59.440the enormous financial advantage the Republicans have over Democrats,
00:34:03.980and the fact that the Democrats, candidly, have no platform.
00:34:08.460They have no rationale for why they should be returned to power.
00:34:13.620It all manifests itself in their hatred of Donald Trump.
00:34:17.580So I'm going out on a limb here, right in the Stone Zone, to say I think the Republicans will increase their margin in the House and they will continue to hold the Senate.
00:34:26.780I'm Roger Stone. You're listening to Stone Zone. Don't go away because we have more hot political news for you on the other side.
00:34:35.020This is the Stone Zone with Roger Stone.
00:34:38.820And he's a great, great person, Roger Stone.
00:35:37.800As I said, Chinese fraudster Guo Wenge, also known as Miles Guo, was sentenced Monday to 30 years in federal prison for bilking investors out of nearly $1 billion, many of them anti-communist supporters who believed that they were funding a crusade against Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party.
00:36:02.980Guo, once a wealthy Chinese real estate insider, reinvented himself in America as a dissident hero, while at the same time living in a $68 million Manhattan penthouse in the Sherry, Netherland, while selling followers on media shares, club memberships, a sham cryptocurrency, and also on a gold scam.
00:36:26.320Prosecutors say he used the money to bankroll mansions, a New Jersey estate, a $4.4 million
00:36:34.140Bugatti, a palatial yacht, and other accoutrements of wealth.
00:36:39.980But the bigger unanswered question is why Stephen K. Bannon, Kuo's powerful political
00:36:46.380ally who was an unindicted co-conspirator in this case, faced no apparent accountability
00:37:47.120If Bannon was merely a paid consultant,
00:37:49.680prosecutors would have a field deal with him.
00:37:51.400But it appears that Bannon's wheeling and dealing with the deep state is what really kept him out of prison.
00:37:56.680This man is a classic Judas Goat, leading conservative and MAGA patriots astray.
00:38:01.900I will never trust this guy, and he is destined to always be on my international worst dress list for all time.
00:38:11.220Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has announced the biggest deregulation in U.S. history.
00:38:15.140He issued a massive executive memorandum aimed at delivering what his administration calls the largest deregulatory action in American history, taking direct aim at costly environmental rules that have driven up vehicle prices and restricted America's ability to repair their own cars, trucks, and equipment.
00:38:33.900This order directs the Environmental Protection Agency to expand the freedom to fix protections by clarifying within 30 days what vehicle owners may lawfully do when repairing emission systems on their own vehicles.
00:38:50.360It also tells the EPA to consider deprioritizing civil reinforcement against Americans who make good faith efforts to restore vehicles to their original configuration.
00:39:02.060At the center of this order is a direct challenge to California's outsized control over aftermarket auto parts.
00:39:10.820This memorandum argues that the California Air Resources Board has become a costly,
00:39:16.200backlogged bottleneck that proves taking more money in a year and effectively allowing one state to dictate national repair options to the country.
00:39:25.040The order by Trump also instructs the EPA to encourage alternative testing and certification pathways for aftermarket parts that comply with the Clean Air Act, while protecting manufacturers' intellectual property and cracking down on cheap foreign knockoffs.
00:39:44.660So for those who have common sense, this is a major win for consumers, farmers, mechanics, small businesses, and American manufacturers.
00:39:53.880Let me put it another way. President Donald Trump is making our cars and trucks great again.
00:40:01.020Thanks for joining us today on The Stone Zone. I'm Roger Stone. Until tomorrow,