Birthrights and Birthwrongs [TEASER]

Peter and Rhiannon revisit the oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara, aka the birthright citizenship case. If you're not a 5-4 Premium member, you're not hearing every episode! To hear this and other Premium-only episodes, access to our Slack community, and more, join at fivefourpod.com/support http://fivefourpod.com/support. 5-4 is presented by Prologue Projects. This episode was produced by Alli Rodgers. Leon Neyfakh provides editorial support. Our website was designed by Peter Murphy. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations. Transcriptions of each episode are available at fivefourpod.com http://fivefourpod.com Follow the show at @fivefourpod on most platforms. On BlueSky, find Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social, Michael @fleerultra.bsky.social, and Rhiannon @aywarhiannon.bsky.social. Our Sponsors: * Check out Mint Mobile and use my code mintmobile.com/fivefour for a great deal: https://www.mintmobile.com * Check out Quince and use my code FIVEFOUR for a great deal: https://www.quince.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Speaker 00

  Hey, everyone. This is Leon from Prolog Projects. On this subscriber-only episode of Five to Four, Peter and Rhiannon are talking about birthright citizenship. On his very first day of his second term in office, President Trump signed an executive order to end birthright citizenship in the United States, contravening the 14th Amendment and more than a century of jurisprudence.

• 0:25Speaker 01

  This next order relates to the definition of birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment of the United States.

• 0:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's a good one. Birthright. That's a big one.

• 0:34Speaker 00

  The ACLU, along with several other groups and states, challenged the executive order almost immediately. And just a few weeks ago, on April 1st, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case. Because the hosts feel pretty good about the likely outcome here, they figured it was worth talking through the administration's arguments and how the justices responded. This is Five to Four, a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks, even if they do seem poised to get this one right.

• 1:09Peter Shamshiri?

  Welcome to Five to Four, where we dissect and analyze the Supreme Court cases that have usurped our civil rights, like Donald Trump is trying to usurp the papacy. I'm Peter, and I'm here with Rhiannon.

• 1:19Speaker 04

  Hey, everybody. The Pope, not tough on crime, bad on foreign policy.

• 1:25Peter Shamshiri?

  It's gonna stick in my head for so long. I was just telling you, like, in his first term, it's that image of him looking at the eclipse directly. Now, maybe this time, it's "The Pope is not tough on crime."

• 1:38Speaker 04

  Right. "The Pope is not tough on crime" is a sentence for the ages.

• 1:44Peter Shamshiri?

  Yeah, I don't even have the words for it yet.

• 1:47Speaker 04

  Right. "The Pope is not tough on crime." "The Pope is bad on foreign policy." Not 48 hours later, posting a photo of himself as Jesus.

• 1:55Peter Shamshiri?

  As Christ.

• 1:56Speaker 04

  He links, and then, no, I thought it was a doctor, and that. It's Looney Tunes. It's Looney Tunesville over there. Five stars on the comedy, though.

• 2:04Peter Shamshiri?

  It's so good. I'm ready for a 13,000-word piece about "The Pope is not tough on crime."

• 2:14Peter Shamshiri?

  I can't wait. Michael, out this week, just the girls, just the ladies hanging out on a five to four. Before we get going, Ree, you have to regale everyone with, with your harrowing tale of bravery.

• 2:30Speaker 04

  Yeah, bravery involving reptiles, specifically snakes. This is a saga that I believe I'm 48 hours out of and I feel my cortisol and adrenaline only just now regulating. So basically I had a weekend, a Sunday and a Monday, chock full of venomous coral snakes at my house. So Sunday afternoon, my partner saw a snake, kind of like in between the, the exterior siding of my house and the concrete underneath in like a kind of two inch space. Out of the corner of his eye sees bright red, right, scales. And he takes a photo, he comes inside, um, he shows me the picture and I say, hold up a minute.

• 3:13Speaker 04

  I don't know if other public school kids learned this across the country, but I certainly did in public school in Texas. There's a handy rhyme. Red touches yellow, kills a fellow. Red touches black, you're okay, Jack. I look at this picture of this snake and what colors do we have touching but red and yellow? I say, this is a fucking venomous snake outside my house. Here's where things get funny. Donald Trump comedy levels of, of government and administration in the city of Austin. I call animal control. I say, there's a venomous snake outside my house. Please come. They say, we don't deal with wild animals. I said, you only deal with pets?

• 3:51Peter Shamshiri?

  Yeah, that's just like if your cat's being a bad boy.

• 3:54Speaker 04

  Right. I said, Petra's sitting on her ass right here. I don't need you for Petra.

• 3:58Peter Shamshiri?

  We don't deal with wild animals.

• 3:59Speaker 04

  Yeah, Petra and I have beef, obviously. She wants to kill me, but that's between me and her.

• 4:04Peter Shamshiri?

  You should have been like, yeah, no, it's my snake.

• 4:07Speaker 05

  Hey folks, if you want to hear the rest of this episode, you're going to have to subscribe. This episode is one of our premium Patreon-only episodes. Membership starts at just $5 a month. So if you want to hear the rest, join us at patreon.com/54pod. That's 54pod all spelled out. Members get a bunch of stuff. Not only do you get access to the premium episodes, but access to subscriber-only events, discounts on merch. And at the $10 a month level, you get bigger discounts on merch and membership in the incredibly rowdy 5-4 Slack. So again, that's patreon.com/54pod. 54pod all spelled out. Become a member today.