The Supreme Court’s ruling on birthright citizenship has split America down the middle. Sources on the ground in Washington say the decision is being met with cheers and jeers in equal measure, a stark reflection of a nation at war with itself.
At the court steps, a crowd of several hundred had gathered by dawn. On one side, activists waving placards reading ‘Born Here, Stay Here’ chanted in unison. On the other, a smaller but louder group held signs demanding ‘End Birth Tourism’. Police kept them apart with a thin line of barriers. The mood was tense. I watched a middle-aged woman in a red jacket scream at a young man with a microphone: “Go back where you came from!” He didn’t flinch. “My family’s been here four generations,” he replied. She turned away.
BBC correspondents on the ground are reporting ‘deep divisions’ across the country. In a phone interview, one source inside the White House told me the administration is ‘bracing for a backlash’. Another source, a senior congressional aide, said the ruling ‘hands a grenade to the opposition’. Neither would go on the record.
I spent the afternoon walking through neighbourhoods in Virginia and Maryland. In a diner off Route 1, a group of retirees argued over coffee. One man, a former Marine, said the ruling ‘defends the Constitution’. His friend, a retired teacher, called it ‘a betrayal of American values’. They didn’t speak to each other for the rest of the meal.
At a public school in Arlington, a teacher told me she’d had to separate two students who nearly came to blows over the ruling. “They’re 12 years old,” she said. “They don’t understand what it really means. They just know their parents are angry.”
Legal experts are still parsing the 200-page decision. One constitutional scholar I spoke to, a professor at Georgetown, described it as ‘a masterclass in judicial overreach’. Another, from the conservative Heritage Foundation, called it ‘a long overdue correction’. Both agreed the ruling would ‘reshape the debate’ on immigration for years to come.
But for the people on the ground, the ruling is personal. I met a woman in a hospital waiting room in DC. She had just given birth. Her baby, a boy, was now a citizen. She didn’t want to give her name. “I don’t feel like celebrating,” she said. “I feel like I’m holding a target.”
The protests are expected to continue through the week. Already, advocacy groups are planning a march on Washington for Saturday. The other side has promised a counter-protest. Local police have requested reinforcements from the National Guard.
This is not a story that ends with a ruling. It is a story that begins with one. The bodies are yet to be counted. Follow the money, they say. But the money is already here. It’s in the lawyers’ fees, the campaign donations, the media ads. And it’s in the pockets of the men in suits who sit in air-conditioned rooms, far from the diners and the hospitals and the schools.
I’ll be here, watching. You know where to find me.
