This column grimly spent a spring predicting a dark summer of possible chaos and violence, an administration on the move, power grabs at every turn, one preparing for an unpredictable but authoritarian fall season. We would endure a lot of hot weather, late nights, some dangerous dynamics, and Kalshi had odds at 40% that Portland would be ashes by June 15th. This worry followed protests in Minnesota, the fear of troops coming to Chicago, and everything else you surely remember. Well, the heat came to the East Coast. But nothing else, not yet.Indeed, so far, if one had to pick a theme or feel for what's happening, it would be a catchy viral meme about what's not happening. "The summer that wasn't."We are passing through the nation's 250th birthday, the biggest annual summer holiday, made infinitely bigger by the incredible number, and yet it looks like it'll go by largely unnoticed, except for skipping work on Friday, maybe hearing some booms late at night Saturday. One would have expected baited anticipation, pride, and massive celebrations planned everywhere, or at least that would have been the expectation back 10 years ago, "normal America."I went to a big gathering in my city's central park to watch the U.S. play in the World Cup on big screens with a big crowd — nice weather. Yes, people supported the American team, but not with the passion, anticipation, or hypertension otherwise expected. Everyone's support seemed a bit muted, as if we weren't sure "which" America this team represented. They wore white, not red or blue. If one said, "It's actually the whole country's team," most would reply, "Right. But, again, which country?"Everyone knows the cause.Instead of a celebration of the good that this country has done in its years (while acknowledging the horrific), as per usual, the President of the United States made the entire thing, everything official, at least, not about America but about him. Yes, of course, your city park will still have the earnest city band or orchestra playing in the evening and then fireworks. But the tone is set by the institutions functioning as the nation's cerebellum: the White House, Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court, the Mall. Trump took it all over and made it a MAGA rally. About him.Well that will blow a tire for the 60% of the nation that is exhausted by this man, consumed with disdain and fury. Interestingly, though, there's some evidence that even Trump supporters don't like having the Fourth of July a personal celebration of Donald Trump, as if they, too, have actually found a line in the sand upon which even they won't cross. He cannot take over everything. Kinda like if he named every NFL team "Trump," like the Buffalo Trump, the Dallas Trump, Seattle Trump, all of them. That would be too far, guaranteed. Perhaps this is, too.No, no one is fooled. He damn sure can try to take over elections, has taken over the Department of Justice, the military, and planted his face on banners in a Stalinesque way throughout Washington. He can take over most things, and most of those things are the really important ones, as opposed to the "Great National State Fair" that invisibly passed us by and the big celebration planned for the actual Fourth of July — a rally, about him, always, his greatness, a nation relegated to nothing but a stage.Is it possible that even MAGAs never wanted at least this part?There are other factors. Yes, there is the heat. Yes, you better believe gas prices play a role. Lots more. And yet the number of artists who checked out after hearing the agenda, the lagging ticket requests before the weather report, the bizarre claw of the UFC fight on the White House lawn, a "Fair" no one asked for, and the fact that Washington is empty, all point to something deeper. Kind of like the U.S. soccer team, it's possible everyone agreed we'd have official "Safe Spots," areas relied on to rest from politics — a "timeout." Is it possible that people from the furthest left, to the most extreme 15% of MAGA muckers, all just want to eat a cheeseburger in a backyard, enjoy a day off, maybe even read in the AC? Sick of it all? Not sure which America we're celebrating, only knowing it's not Donald Trump personally?Well, something is happening because nothing is happening!It appears that our kids are out of school, mine seems to be home a lot — which normally indicates something "summery." That weirdly fascinating soccer stuff is on television, and we get to see some kinda cool costumes and customs from around the world. Hollywood released a handful of massive budget movies. Most people have Friday off. There is some evidence that it's summer's big holiday and a lot saying it's not supposed to be like this.All of this might be an important development; it is possible it is an important element, and it's certainly better than an extreme alternative. But there's also the chance that we're seeing a delay of the dangers to which this column previously pointed.
All Things Considered host Scott Detrow speaks with NPR's editor-in-chief Thomas Evans and Nina Totenberg about her reporting on the final day of the Supreme Court term.
Does NPR's Nina Totenberg have advanced knowledge that Justice Samuel Alito is about to retire?
The post NPR’s Nina Totenberg Reveals Why She Posted a Story Claiming Alito Was Retiring – Then Quickly Retracted appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
For one day, at least, the Constitution held, and in the chaotic and disjointed time we are living in, and where we hold our breath awaiting the rulings of an overtly bigoted Supreme Court, that is saying an awful lot.The court today struck down President Donald Trump's executive order attempting to strip birthright citizenship from children born on U.S. soil to undocumented or non-permanent-resident parents. In doing so, it reaffirmed one of the oldest and most sacred guarantees in American life: if you are born here, you are an American. No exceptions for the status of your parents, no second-class tier of citizenship invented by a president acting alone. It is a relief, and it should not have been in doubt, and because it was, it was an example of how far our open democracy has closed up.What we have retained today is an America where hundreds of thousands of U.S.-born children are instantly granted automatic citizenship, securely integrated into their communities with full social services, education, and employment rights, and where their families achieve permanent status without facing the threat of arbitrary deportation.We have avoided a system where birth certificates require complex parental status checks and state health departments are forced to act as immigration enforcers. It would have created a disenfranchised subclass.In other words, if SCOTUS had acquiesced to Trump, all hell and fury would have broken loose, and the 14th Amendment shredded to pieces.The 14th Amendment wasn't an accident or a loophole or an afterthought. It was written in the wake of the Civil War, specifically to overturn Dred Scott and guarantee, in plain language, that anyone born here belonged here, regardless of what their parents had been forced to endure, regardless of where their bloodline started.For a century and a half, that promise has held. The Supreme Court itself affirmed it in 1898 in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, ruling that a man born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrant parents, parents who could not even become citizens themselves under the racist laws of the era, was as American as anyone else in this country by virtue of his birth alone.Today's ruling holds that line. A child's legal status belongs to them alone, entirely free from the politics, status, or actions of their parents. A baby born in a Texas hospital is an American citizen by right, not by the permission of whoever happens to occupy the White House or a court that is chock-full of narrow-minded conservatives.Trump’s executive order was so bad that in early 2025, U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour in Seattle blocked the policy, slamming it as "blatantly unconstitutional." The Reagan-appointed judge used scathing language, stating that in his four decades on the bench, he had never seen such a clear violation of law. Rebuking the executive overreach, Coughenour declared, "to our president the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals," warning that history judges harshly when the legal system fails to stand up to unlawful actions.The children of immigrants, including immigrants who arrived undocumented or with nothing but hope, have become some of the people who define what America is. They have shaped and bolstered our economy.This country's culture, science, economy and even its politics were built in no small part by Americans whose parents came here without papers, without money, and without permission, and whose children were citizens anyway because the Constitution said so.Today's ruling means that story continues. It means the next generation of doctors, engineers, athletes, and artists born in this country will still get to claim it as their own by right of birth, the same as every generation before them.The ruling is also a reminder that the Constitution cannot be rewritten by executive order, no matter how forcefully Trump and his ill-advised ilk wishes it could. It confirms what that judge in Seattle, and really what a century and a half of precedent had already found, that the 14th Amendment means what it says, and no president gets to amend it unilaterally.That matters beyond this single case. It comes against the backdrop of an administration and a Supreme Court that has also moved to strip Temporary Protected Status from Haitian and Syrian nationals and taken a death-knell posture toward asylum seekers at the southern border. Today's ruling doesn't undo those horrific policies, but it draws a clear line the administration cannot cross, explicitly saying that birthright citizenship is no one’s to revoke.The fight over who belongs in this country is far from over, and this ruling will not be the last word on immigration policy under this administration. In all probability, this ruling today might be a one-off, and that’s the tragedy of it all.But for today, the Constitution's plainest, oldest promise to the children born on this soil remains intact.
