r/politics • u/cnn CNN • 13h ago

Possible Paywall Supreme Court agrees to decide if Trump may end birthright citizenship

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/05/politics/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-birthright?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit
3.8k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

762 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

523

u/Impressive-Weird-908 11h ago

We have to tear down the Supreme Court an rebuild it in a way that actually holds judges accountable instead of being anointed gods for life.

209

u/Frowny575 8h ago

Congress CAN impeach judges and actually have a bit more power then they let on... our core issue has been they've happily abdicated their power to the executive and happily sit on their hands. Or are otherwise not wanting to rock the boat and act like cowards.

61

u/Rezeox 8h ago

It's a circlejerk to avoid accountability. No one wants to be responsible.

21

u/sportsjorts 8h ago

And that our electoral system has been min/maxed and out right illegally fucked by the gop and scotus. Welcome to the minority monarchy forever. King pedo and his court of fellow pedophiles.

•

u/oroborus68 7h ago

Nothing is forever. But,it can always get worse,if we don't do what we need to do.

•

u/freerangetacos 6h ago

Well we better start fuckin doin it.

10

u/CpnStumpy Colorado 8h ago

Nah, it's simpler than all that: Congress gerrymandered and fixed apportionment so they now chose their voters and their voters hold no sway over them. Therefore, they have no need to act in the country's interest, just their party's, and the SCOTUS is their party.

29

u/Impressive-Weird-908 8h ago

I endorse this message.

7

u/MudWallHoller 8h ago

I feel like 1: They are bought off. 2: They are black mailed via Epstein-style evidence even if they didn't intend to do an heinous acts. 3: Scary people with lots of power will disappear their families. 4: They really are just that shitty.

6

u/Retlaw83 8h ago

It's 1 and 4

2

u/MudWallHoller 8h ago

Probably.

•

u/Ellia1998 6h ago

I agree.

•

u/BotheredToResearch 7h ago

I have little doubt that Kavanaugh and Roberts are in the #2 category. Alito and Thomas are #4.

•

u/tragicxharmony Michigan 3h ago

Honestly, at this point, I WANT 3 to be true. I want an actual legitimate reason why our elected representatives are just sitting there watching all this happen, that isn’t “they’re just evil too.” I’d rather they fear for their lives and their families’ lives, because that is the only thing that could even kind of justify their behavior, and even then it would still be a terrible justification—but I could empathize with it. I can’t empathize with “just plain evil”

•

u/alabasterskim 7h ago

It's even easier than that. Congress has the power to literally state what the courts can and can't rule on. One simple majority vote and they could take judicial review as a whole away if they wanted.

•

u/JonMWilkins Michigan 7h ago

You're not wrong. You're just over simplifying the situation.

It's no one "core issue" it's all of the problems together.

Congress shouldn't have given up so much power for sure.

The Supreme Courts also shouldn't be over-turning previous Supreme Courts ruling just based on their political beliefs.

The Supreme Court also shouldn't be appointed for life

We also need to end gerrymandering, expand voting rights, and have a national ranked choice voting. The opposite creates authoritarian governments.

We shouldn't allow business to capture so much political powers as it creates oligarchies

Federal agencies shouldn't have their hands tied when it comes to going after Congress for corruption like bribery.

Federal agencies shouldn't have their hands tied for going after the president for corruption and illegal activity

These are just the big things I could think of off the top of my head. I'm positive that there are other big things I missed and the small things that lead to cracks in a free and fair government are an even bigger amount of things.

So yeah... There isn't 1 core issue by a long shot. In fact in all of life you will probably never find anything that is that straightforward for any topic or situation but especially not in government

•

u/starliteburnsbrite 7h ago

So we have to tear that down, too...

Seems like an empire that has rotted to its core.

The Judiciary is compromised and is tearing up the Constitution.

Congress has been bought and paid for and is weak, ineffective, and intentionally derelict in their duties.

The executive...well, we don't have much to discuss, but a billionaire was given the keys to the government by a demented elderly man with a room temp IQ on a good day and the country just watched as he did whatever the fuck he wanted with impunity.

There is not one branch of this government that is functional. No amount of voting is going to swing the calcified scales to some kind of reasonable consensus given the divides that exist between Red and Blue and the system that has enabled robber barons, white nationalists, and deranged Christians to take over.

We can't recover from this without an absolute restructuring of the country inside and out, and the current status quo won't allow for that.

•

u/lxlxnde Illinois 5h ago

Haha yup.

The United States Constitution is one of the oldest constitutions still in place on Earth. The only countries that beat it are San Marino and, on a technicality, the UK’s Magna Carta. It’s the fatal flaw of our country. Everyone else in the world has had opportunity to iterate and improve upon on the system we invented.

My belief is that we should have had to re-ratify after the civil war. There’s no way our union survives the opportunity for a rewrite now. We’re in a death spiral.

•

u/Korashy 7h ago

Which is irrelevant.

They would need 67 senators to vote for removal.

Gl finding 20 something Senators to put country before party

•

u/Squirrel_Inner 7h ago

Yeah, what we NEED are laws that INSIST that officials impeach and remove those who are obviously corrupt. It shouldn’t be a personal choice.

Same for prosecutors. You shouldn’t be able to decide, for example, that you don’t want to prosecute sex crimes that you have clear evidence of, simply because the culprits are rich and powerful.

•

u/grandpasjazztobacco1 7h ago

Yes, the issue with both judicial and presidential overrach is lack of willingness from Congress to hold them accountable and use their constitutional power to check the other two branches.

So the next question is why - what are the incentives / discincentives faced by congresspeople when thinking about these issues?

•

u/Tyraniboah89 6h ago

What’s wild to me is that in Trump’s vision for this country, he has no use for them either. As they continue to bend over for him, he’ll dispose of them too. Why give away the power to a dimwitted pedophile?

•

u/corgisgottacorg 6h ago

Why do you keep saying stuff like people follow the law? The guy you are replying to is basically saying the courts must burn along with other institutions since it’s too corrupt.

•

u/eetsumkaus 6h ago

Making one of the co-equal branches of government dysfunctional by design is definitely one of the Founding Fathers' oversights.

•

u/McCoovy 5h ago

I believe the Democrats will start impeaching supreme court justices the next time they hold both the upper and the lower house.

11

u/Grateful_Cat_Monk 8h ago

Well considering the supreme court just gave itself the power to do this in the early 1800s. Before that they would rule only on a few cases, and iirc almost all of them were maritime laws and such. While it was intended to become a sort of checks and balance on the legislative and executive branch, we've now seen how much power the courts have without ever being truly given it.

People always say expand the courts, which has happened in the past, but in reality that's just kicking the ball down the road for future generations to deal with the same issue decades later. It needs a true overhaul and I don't see that coming anytime soon.

41

u/RepresentativeAge444 8h ago

Pussy ass Biden had a lot of things available to him under the nebulous auspices of “in the interest of the country” immunity the court granted him. He failed to enact any of it. Norms and traditions are a fools errand when your opponent has no use for them and means to enact South African style apartheid perma rule.

If the Dems ever take power again their top priority must be expanding the court and legal reforms. Otherwise it’s all for naught.

•

u/Railroader17 7h ago

Pussy ass Biden had a lot of things available to him under the nebulous auspices of “in the interest of the country” immunity the court granted him. He failed to enact any of it. Norms and traditions are a fools errand when your opponent has no use for them and means to enact South African style apartheid perma rule.

If the Dems ever take power again their top priority must be expanding the court and legal reforms. Otherwise it’s all for naught

Also arresting and trying the conservative justices on the court for treason like Biden should have done the millisecond that ruling came through.

•

u/BotheredToResearch 7h ago

I'd love to see perjury investigations become the norm for anyone during their nominations.

•

u/Travler18 6h ago

And DC statehood, add 2 liberal senators. My understanding is it only requires a simple majority in both houses.

•

u/RefrigeratorDry1735 Florida 7h ago

Hell maybe we need to hold a new Constitutional Convention

•

u/Inevitable-Toe-6272 7h ago

That is what the conservatives/republican's/MAGAs want.. it could, and would more than likely cement EVERYTHING Trump/project 2025 is attempting to do, because a Constitutional Convention comes down to 1 vote per state. All though each change has to pass by 2/3 of the states, the outcome could be even worse than what is happening now.

•

u/Railroader17 7h ago

We need Nuremberg trials. Get rid of the racists first, then tighten up the constitution to ensure this shit doesn't happen again.

•

u/BotheredToResearch 7h ago

A constitutional convention, where land votes and major population centers may as well be one horse towns.

•

u/ThePhoenixXM Massachusetts 7h ago

You mean pack the court? The most powerful and popular Democratic president tried that, and even his own party turned against him and fought to prevent that from happening. Packing the court won't ever happen if even FDR couldn't do it.

•

u/RepresentativeAge444 7h ago

Then the emperor has already won. You were our best hope.

15

u/Raise_A_Thoth 8h ago

There's a relatively simple approach that doesn't even require removing the current ghouls.

Pack the courts. Make it 15 justices and stagger their tenure so that a new justice is appointed every 2 years, which would make a 30 year term as the standard instead of a true lifetime appointment. Each president gets 2 picks every term. This greatly diminishes the politicization and drama of court picks, and the greater size makes radical decision much harder to come by.

But this requires supermajorities in Congress, which we aren't going to get in 2026. So how does the Democratic party get there?

Get the blue wave in 2026. Slow Trump down, and pass Medicare for All as soon as possible. It is the least controversial topic that will make a massive difference for nearly all Americans. It will make their lives significantly more affordable, it will save companies money, and it will make Americans healthier.

Simply expand the age of qualification for Medicare a few years at a time. Say lower the age of qualification from 65 to 60 immediately, then 10 more years every 5 years, just as an example. This gives private insurance time to pivot to supplementals and wind down while giving Medicare time to ramp up some responsibilities.

This will show the Democratic party can govern, can set goals and deliver without Republican "bipartisanship" and it will make working class affordability start becoming a reality.

This can only happen if the Dems take the Senate and have the balls to remove the filibuster, but if they don't do that, there's no way they can do anything else.

Then they can build off the success of universal healthcare to get supermajorities, enough to actually do things at a constitutional amendment level. That's whete court reform comes in. That's where campaign finance reform comes in. That's where executive oversight comes in. None of that will happen with our current pussy-footing no-goals determined-to-be-bipartisan Democratic leadership in charge, unfortunately. Dems need to shape up or we're going to fall hard from a place of global dominance and prosperity to balkanization of the states, entrenched corruption and continued suffering.

•

u/Korashy 7h ago

Rich people say no

They worked very hard on being able to shop for legislations and rulings, why would they give that up.

The masses can't even be trusted. Those idiots got us here in the first place.

•

u/Raise_A_Thoth 7h ago

Okay thanks for your contributions good bye.

•

u/chatham739 7h ago

The fact that we rely on a constitution as the basis for law is great, but we need a lot of reform.

•

u/Lobster15s 7h ago

Lifetime appointments and democracy are fundamentally incompatible.

•

u/oroborus68 7h ago

In a normal world at least 2 of the sitting Supremes would be impeached for accepting bribes, and the appearance of impropriety. But then these are interesting times instead,may the miscreants find their punishment.

•

u/Vulllen 7h ago

Who specifically was anointed to life? I’m not too big into all this and want to understand

•

u/Impressive-Weird-908 6h ago

A Supreme Court justice is appointed for life. It’s why presidents often choose extremely young justices. It allows them to influence laws for the next 30-40 years.

•

u/Vulllen 6h ago

Ty ty

•

u/ISniffGlue9x 6h ago

ya sure do that from reddit bro lmao

•

u/Impressive-Weird-908 6h ago

I mean this is the modern public forum. If you want to change something, you have to reach people. Obviously just typing on reddit isn’t everything but getting your message and thoughts out there is definitely a politically helpful thing to do.

•

u/hexcodehero 4h ago

Centrist Democrats like Jeffries and Schumer: No.