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On January 25, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order stating that birthright citizenship would be denied to children of undocumented immigrants or temporary visitors to the U.S. On June 30, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Trump v. Barbara that the order was unconstitutional. In this brief, we discuss the background and implications of this decision:

Everything Policy analysts are exploring what the Founding Fathers might say about the evolution of our political system. In this brief, we consider modern political parties from the viewpoint of George Washington, leader of America’s armed forces during the Revolutionary War, presiding officer at the Constitutional Convention, and the first President of the United States.

A common complaint about America’s elected officials is that they fail to implement easy, practical solutions to public policy problems. These concerns are part of the explanation for the continued decline in trust in government. In this brief, we explore the logic behind these complaints using a perennial public policy problem: federal budget deficits. Are elected officials ignoring the obvious, or is the situation more complex than it appears?