Lawyer who defeated Trump BREAKS HIS SILENCE after HUGE VICTORY

I'm joined now by the founder of. Democracy Defenders Fund, Norm Eisen. Norm, you have just proven yourself a. major thorn in Donald Trump's side, blowing a huge hole in a plan that he. had since day one of his administration. Can you explain what you just did in. court? We just secured. the certification of a nationwide class. of plaintiffs. uh and a preliminary injunction that. Donald Trump's denial of the.

Constitution which says that all persons. born in the United States are citizen is. unconstitutional. From the beginning of his. administration, the very first day, he. signed an executive order saying, "No, the 14th amendment, all persons born. here are citizens." Uh, that only. applied to the children of slaves back. when it was passed after the Civil War. No, that's not what it says at all. It. says all persons born in the United. States. A cornerstone of his.

administration and his hatred is the. scapegoating. We see that with. authoritarians. everywhere in the world. They always. pick a scapegoat. Donald Trump is. targeting migrants. And together with. our partners, in this case, the ACLU, the nation's oldest and largest Latino. civil rights group, LUAC, uh the NAACP, LDF, Legal Defense Fund, and so many. other wonderful partners. We have.

secured this injunction, and we've put. Donald Trump back in his corner. He. thought the Supreme Court let him off. two weeks ago. We've shown him that. still no one is above the law. So. basically this was a situation where. Trump thought that he had cart blanch to. be able to move forward with his. unlawful plans, his unconstitutional. plans because he watched the Supreme. Court say um in deference to him that. there can be no nationwide injunction. So one court somewhere can't look at a.

blatantly unlawful order handed down by. the Trump administration and say no you. can't do that and this injunction. applies to the whole country. And so he. thought he got a win. But now your. lawsuit basically pushed back on that. and said, "Okay, if we can't have. nationwide injunctions, we can still. have class action lawsuits and so let's. find um everybody impacted by birthright. citizenship and say that they are part. of the same class of protected people, which effectively has the exact same. result as what a nationwide injunction. would be. Is that correct?".

>> That's right, Brian. About two weeks ago. in the Cassa case, um the Supreme Court. closed one door and said just plain old. nationwide injunctions where a judge. says you violated the 14th amendment. I'm going to issue an injunction. covering the country. No, but they. opened another door. They said the way. to do that is to go to court, have a. class, that means a similarly situated. representative groups group of.

plaintiffs who stand for uh people. across the country, get your class. certified. The court says yes, that is a. class. I'm accepting it and then get a. preliminary injunction that way. Well, within two hours of that Supreme Court. decision, ourselves and the ACLU and. LUAC and the LDF and our other wonderful. partners and our wonderful clients, the. children who uh have been born since. February 20th or who um are the parents.

of the children who are going to be. born. Those are the clients here. Um are. and with our wonderful clients, we were. back in court a little over two hour. later. Two hours later, we asked the. judge to go fast. He did. Uh and here we. are uh with this uh certification of our. class and this injunction just like the. Supreme Court invited, >> right? And and it's it's also worthwhile. to move quickly because otherwise you. have babies born who are literally. stateless and and that is not a tenable.

position here. Um, so is this. retroactive to to Are there any babies. that were born before this before this. court ruling was handed down that are. effectively stateless who were born to. undocumented immigrants um that were. still like under the I guess temporary. jurisdiction of Trump's executive order? >> Well, there's issues about the timing of. the executive order. Trump claims it. doesn't kick in for 30 days. um after the Supreme Court decision, but.

the court was leaving nothing to chance. it did issue a retroactive. uh injunction that goes back to the end. of that original 30-day period, which is. February 20th. So the injunction is for. all children born after February 20th, 2025 coast to coast who are born of uh. where one parent was a uh uh an. undocumented migrant, the other parent. might have citizenship but uh perhaps.

not permanent citizenship. Any child. where there could be a question, do they. have birthright citizenship, they are. protected by this injunction. Now we're. going to have to continue to fight. appeals. But as you know, we can't have. a crazy quilt that a baby in one county. is protected because a judge there. happened to issue an injunction and then. next door a baby is born that's not. protected. We need a uniform plan. Brian, um I certainly haven't agreed.

with everything this Roberts court has. done, but there's a consistent pattern. where they close one door and they open. another one. They make it a little. tougher, but with hard work, you're able. to deliver for the constitution for the. clients. For example, remember the. Arbago Garcia case. Lower court judge. said the government must facilitate and. effectuate the return of Abrago. No, the. Supreme Court said you must facilitate.

effectuate. That's too much. They. compromised. Well, guess what? Abrago's. lawyers had to work a little hard. The. Trump administration said, "Oh, we're. never bringing him back." Today, Abrao. is back on US soil and fighting. utilizing the courts, utilizing his due. process rights. So, same thing here. Uh, the court made it a little tougher. Robert's court made it a little tougher, but they did open that door. We walk. through it. In fact, 2 hours after the.

Supreme Court's ruling, we ran through. that uh door uh to protect the rights of. these babies. All babies born in the. United States are citizens of the United. States. My parents were migrants. Every. person here comes of migrant stock. except for the Native Americans. Um and. so um this is uh the idea of America in. action and we're very proud that we. secured that first injunction.

>> Now Norm, it's it's worth asking here. that normally when you have a federal. district court, their rulings don't. establish any precedent. But isn't it. true that now that we have a now that. this is a class action lawsuit, the only. people impacted are not those who are in. this specific case. This is class action. and so this is the entire country. everybody who who falls into this this. class across the entirety of the United. States is protected by this ruling. Is. that correct? >> Uh that's exactly right, Brian. Normally.

um when a federal district court, the. trial court rules, um that binds that. individual judge and other judges uh in. that district may or may not agree with. that first opinion. It's not until the. appellet courts and ultimately the. Supreme Court get involved uh that. precedent is more broadly binding. But. this is following what the Supreme Court. said less than two weeks ago making such. news in the Casa case that um the way to.

get a nationwide injunction and bind. everyone in the country, every baby born. here um in the period the judge applied. this to after February 20th uh is. through class action. And that's what we. did. We got the class certified. That. means the judge said yes, it's a proper. class. It represents all the babies and. um and we got the injunction based on. that class certification. Now we'll have.

appeals here. But we think we're on firm. footing. We did what the Supreme Court. asked. Uh Donald Trump's reading of the. Constitution on birthright citizenship. is ridiculous. He says it only applies. to the children of slaves. It says very. clearly all persons. This is an. originalist port. They say follow the. words and the original meaning. That is. clearly the meaning. The court has held. as much for um uh the entire history of.

this 14th amendment. And uh we're. confident that we are going to succeed. on appeal. >> if this gets to the Supreme Court. I I. know nothing is a sure thing, but it was. the Supreme Court itself that left open. the option to to um make use of these. class action lawsuits. And so is there a. world where the Supreme Court can say we. know we gave you this remedy, but in. fact we don't want you to employ this. remedy like that that seems complete.

completely outside the realm of. possibility. Can can can you weigh in on. that? We have to be candid about the. challenges uh that we faced and uh to. take strong exception to some of the. decisions uh of the Robert's court on uh. Trump's uh imperial and unconstitutional. u uses of executive power. I would point. all your listeners to Justice Katanji.

Brown Jackson's magnificent dissents. explaining why we uh disagree with the. some of the ruling of rulings of the. Roberts court. But even this court is. confronted with a long line of precedent. that class actions are acceptable and. with the plain language of the 14th. amendment. All persons born here are. citizens of the United States. So even.

the Roberts court um is going to be. hardpressed to disagree uh with what the. judge did today and and and what I think. many other judges are going to do as. these cases these class actions are also. brought elsewhere in the country. We're. expecting another decision in Maryland. any day now. Of course, this this case. before it was a class action was the. very first to be filed anywhere in the. country challenging Trump's.

unconstitutional attack on birthright. citizenship back on January 20th. We. filed it as soon as he did that EO. And. then we did the same thing after the. Supreme Court ruled that you had to have. a class action. We went to court a. couple hours later, raced and now we. have got the class certified and we've. got that preliminary injunction. protecting all the babies. If there's. one thing we should all be for, it's. American babies, Brian. And that's what.

the Constitution establishes, a class of. all babies born here. They're Americans. That's the American idea, and that is. what we defended and secured in court. today. Well, look, I I will always give. uh happy to give a platform to the. people who are fighting, especially. those who are fighting on the front. lines and you and your team at Democracy. Defenders Fund and all of the other. groups and other co-consil that were. involved in this case are chief among. them. So, highly recommend for anybody. watching, if you're looking to support. the work that Democracy Defenders Fund.

is doing, which is fighting this battle. on the front lines, I'll put the link to. that right here on the screen and also. in the post description of this video. If you're listening on the podcast, it'll be in the show notes. Norm, appreciate the work that you're doing. and the time that you have today. >> Brian, it's been so meaningful to me uh. as you and I have traveled on this. journey of Trump's autocratic overreach, but the push back, including in the. courts and by the rule of law. We've had. so many of these conversations with your.

wonderful viewers and listeners, and. we're on this journey together. We're. going to protect the Constitution. We're. going to protect all the American. babies. Uh, and uh, we're going to end. this autocratic nightmare together. Norm, thanks again.