RIGHT-WINGERS HAVEN'T BUILT A POPULAR MOVEMENT TO ELIMINATE BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, BUT THEY SEEM TO BE WORKING ON THAT NOW

Three Supreme Court justices have concluded that birthright citizenship isn't a right granted by the 14th Amendment. A fourth justice is on the fence. It's clear now that the Court could take birthright citizenship away in the not-too-distant future. The pseudonymous Bluesky poster who uses the name Richard M. Nixon is right:

Barring changes to the Court you will see another go at birthright citizenship within 10 years.

— Richard M. Nixon (@dicknixon.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 10:41 AM

Dave Weigel responds:

If Rs win in 2028 and replace Sotomayor, it's gone.

In a video essay, Jamelle Bouie agrees, saying, "A 5-4 decision means that this isn't over, that this is only the beginning." But in the following posts, he questions whether the right has laid all the necessary groundwork to make this happen:

i will say that although this is the beginning of the right’s assault on birthright citizenship, one difference with roe v. wade is that the latter was fueled by a mass movement with a broad, institutionalized base in the nation’s evangelical and catholic churches. the question, i think…

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— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) June 30, 2026 at 6:34 PM

…is if there is a similar mass base to organize and sustain a campaign against birthright citizenship and, on the other side, is there a mass base to organize and sustain a campaign in its defense?

— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) June 30, 2026 at 6:34 PM

I'm not sure the right needs a popular movement analogous to the anti-abortion movement in order to win on this issue. The current Supreme Court does a lot of radical-right things for which there's no popular groundswell.

But it appears that right-wing propagandists are trying to inspire the formation of an anti-birthright citizenship mass movement right now. Here's Matt Walsh (original tweet here):

"Use whatever force is necessary."

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— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 12:29 PM

And here's Sean Davis, co-founder of The Federalist (original tweet here):

Quite the meltdown on the postliberal right today....

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— Paul Graf (@paulginva.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 3:56 PM

These people are telling their followers that drastic action is needed, immediately, to effectively reverse this decision.

And please note they're talking about the ruling as if the Court changed citizenship law in America yesterday, rather than merely preserving the status quo. Here's Matt Walsh again:

I at least got to live for 40 years in a country that looks and functions something like America. The fact that my children are having that opportunity stolen from them fills me with rage so deep I can’t describe it. I truly hate the people who have done this to us.

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 30, 2026

But Matt, you didn't get to "live for 40 years" in a country without birthright citizenship. You got to live in a country with the same birthright citizenship provisions we have now.

I think Walsh and Davis know this, but they know that most of their followers don't. They know that Look what they took from you is one of the most potent messages on the right. So Walsh pretends that he "got to live for 40 years in a country that looks and functions something like America," and Davis pretends that John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett joined with the Court's liberals "to nullify the 14th Amendment and extra-constitutionally replace it with their own language."

A cynic would say that this is all part of the long game for the Court's Republicans, and for Republicans in general:

* Trump issues an executive order eliminating birthright citizenship.

* The Supreme Court preserves it but points the way to its elimination.

* The entire process puts the subject on the national agenda and turns it into an issue that drives Republican voters to the polls.

* Until the Court finally overturns birthright citizenship, support for it is now painted as one of those weird, elitist ideas they have in the Democrat Party, rather than the law of the land since the nineteenth century.

Even if Democrats score a trifecta in 2028 and expand the Supreme Court so it's no longer an unelected far-right legislature, this can be a lingering grievance for Republican and right-centrist voters. Abolishing birthright citizenship will now be down-the-middle mainstream Republicanism, a demand that will be a huge applause line in the convention acceptance speech of the party's 2028 presidential nominee.