STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Today is the last day of the Supreme Court term.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Yeah, and the court has been releasing its rulings in many cases. Today, we expect to learn their opinions on the final six, including some of the biggest ones argued this term.
INSKEEP: NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg is covering this and is in our studios once again. Hi, Nina.
NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE: Hi there, Steve.
INSKEEP: OK, the major case we're looking at is on birthright citizenship. It revolves on the meaning of a phrase in the Constitution, a sentence. All persons born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States, the Constitution says. What should we be looking for in the case?
TOTENBERG: Well, Donald Trump has issued an executive order saying that only some children born in the United States can be citizens. And it's directly opposite of what the actual text says in the Constitution, and every judge to have ruled on it has said he's wrong. It's every baby born in the United States is automatically an American citizen. The Justice Department, I think, knowing that it was going to lose this case on the merits, didn't ask the court to reverse those decisions. Instead, it went to court and said, please, Supreme Court, these judges have made their rulings apply nationwide, and that exceeds their authority. We want you to bar these kinds of nationwide injunctions, which, if the court does that, would make litigating against Trump administration policies exponentially more difficult.
INSKEEP: Given what you said, that the administration went to the Supreme Court on this narrower question, could the justices rule anyway on the question of birthright citizenship and what it means?
TOTENBERG: Look, they're the Supreme Court of the United States. They can do what they want. But the question wasn't briefed or argued, and it wasn't discussed in the argument at all.
INSKEEP: What are some of the other cases you're watching for?
TOTENBERG: There's a big case from Montgomery County, Maryland, that tests whether parents are entitled to opt their children out of classes when they object to the school district's curriculum on religious grounds. This was a case involving grade school children and books that had gay and lesbian characters. But you could imagine that it might be also about teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. So it has a lot of potential for punch, and school officials are pretty nervous about it.
INSKEEP: There's something about Obamacare before the court?
TOTENBERG: Yeah, there's yet another challenge to the Affordable Care Act brought by conservative groups. This time, Obamacare's opponents are targeting a measure that requires most private insurance companies to provide free preventive care without co-pays or deductibles to both adults and children. And there are about 150 million people who benefit from this, and it'll be gone if the court rules with the challengers. Finally, there's also a case challenging a Texas law that seeks to crack down on kids' access to pornography by requiring everyone, including adults, to provide proof of age on the website before they get access.
INSKEEP: So once the court rules on these cases, are you and they done for the summer?
TOTENBERG: Not quite. There are several cases on the shadow docket, otherwise called the emergency docket. These are consequential cases involving layoffs of federal workers, shuttering various agencies, deporting people without due process. So they're going to have to work over the summer, but they'll probably work from very glitzy places.
INSKEEP: Got it.
TOTENBERG: (Laughter).
INSKEEP: Well, Nina, we'll be listening for your coverage later in the day.
TOTENBERG: Thank you.
INSKEEP: NPR's Nina Totenberg. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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