U.S. President Donald Trump has confirmed that he will ask the Supreme Court to reconsider a recent ruling overturning his executive order aimed at revoking the right to citizenship by birth, a demand that is unlikely to be met by the justices of the highest judicial authority in the United States.
President Trump expressed displeasure with last week's ruling, when a majority of the court's nine justices affirmed that citizenship to all children born on U.S. soil is guaranteed by the Constitution.
He posted on his social media platform Truth Social that banners and billboards were being posted along the southern border of the United States and in Mexico to promote that citizenship would be granted "to anyone who wants to pay."
Trump was referring to a Fox News report that revealed that a Texas hospital had announced payment for "South Texas birth packages" on billboards in Mexico, adding that Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had ordered an investigation into the hospital.
"Marketing materials related to maternity services are no longer used due to an unintentional misunderstanding," a hospital statement said, adding, "We do not support or facilitate any illegal activity, and we work to comply with all applicable federal and state laws and regulations."
'Crazy decision'
Trump said he would ask the Supreme Court to "reconsider" the case "immediately," adding that the justices would "destroy America if they don't completely change their crazy decision," and it was not immediately clear whether and when the administration's lawyers would file a new petition to the court.
Under the Supreme Court's rules, parties may ask judges to reconsider a substantive case after a ruling, but the court's approval of such requests is extremely rare.
The last time the court granted the request for review was after a verdict was announced in a case that took place in 1965, and according to US reports, the court changed its decision only once after reconsidering a case filed in 1956, concerning the jurisdiction of military courts with respect to spouses of civilian military personnel.
Trump, who attended oral arguments in the Supreme Court's citizenship case, continued his scathing attack on the court over its ruling, which was announced by Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote in the ruling: "Citizenship, then and now, was a right to enjoy rights — to participate freely in our political community, and the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment expanded that promise to every free-born human being on this land."
The resolution, passed by a vote of 6 to 3, was the culmination of more than a decade of Trump's efforts to exploit the issue politically, and in the immediate aftermath of its passage, he urged Congress to address the issue with legislation, claiming that "there is no need for a lengthy and complex constitutional amendment."
Maternity Tourism
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced following the ruling that the Trump administration will intensify its crackdown on so-called "birth tourism" in the United States, adding that U.S. authorities will proceed with measures targeting foreign women who intend to give birth in the United States to grant their children U.S. citizenship.
He said the Justice Department had instructed federal prosecutors and law enforcement to be tough on "birth tourism," describing the phenomenon as "thriving and will continue" "in view of the Supreme Court's decision." "There are other things that the federal government can do in the visa process and the application process, to try to reduce or restrict the chances of some people coming here just to have a child who can then become a U.S. citizen," he said.
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