The Brief

Five miles southeast of Downtown Los Angeles lies a unique, bustling little city, self-described as “exclusively industrial.” It faced accusations of political and ecological corruption so serious that a dozen years ago the State Legislature came within a hair’s breadth of abolishing it.

The city of Vernon survived that near-death experience, which would have seen it dissolved as an independent city and remade as an unincorporated area of L.A. County. Vernon’s survival was thanks to a huge lobbying campaign by its city government — as well as business interests anxious to preserve it as a sanctuary that offered firms substantial savings to locate there. Some labor unions joined the campaign, fearful that businesses might leave a disincorporated Vernon and take with them tens of thousands of jobs for blue collar commuters that included some union members.

Ultimately, these pro-Vernon forces cut a deal with a key legislator who persuaded colleagues to let the city survive in return for its promise to reform its governance and double the size of its extremely small residential population.

The 5-square-mile city made good on those promises, but remains dogged by environmental woes:

• The South Coast Air Quality Management District estimates that Vernon’s cancer-risk rate is 40% higher than Southern California’s generally.
• Nearly 600 of approximately 1,800 businesses, located throughout the city, handle or store hazardous chemicals, mostly at high volumes, according to a city report. Records show that nearly 40 of these businesses handle high volumes of extremely toxic chemicals regulated by the state, such as ammonia and chlorine gas, whose accidental release could impact large areas.
• Long known as a transportation hub, the city is home to very high levels of truck and rail traffic. Much of the city is crisscrossed by 130 miles of railroad tracks and much of that has been contaminated by herbicides and spilled chemicals. Vernon is also laced with underground pipelines, many of which carry potentially explosive materials, according to a city report.
• Three facilities have been identified as hazardous materials release sites by the California Department of Toxic Substance Control, 25 sites have been found to have had leaking underground storage tanks. A city map shows dozens of other locations with real or suspected soil contamination issues.

As the city put it in a report to the state last year, “serious environmental conditions [including] hazardous materials storage and processing, background contamination, noxious odors, noise pollution, and truck and railroad traffic generated by the City’s pervasive industrial land uses.…. render the majority of sites throughout Vernon unsuitable for residential development.”

Soil contamination risks in Vernon, included the large contamination zone left by the Exide lead battery plant.

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“Some people might say it’s still the same city,” said Fred MacFarlane, a media consultant who worked as the city’s spokesperson for five years during and after the disincorporation fight. MacFarlane was in this role as government reforms were being conceived and implemented.

“It is and it isn’t … The city is in much better shape from a governance standpoint.”

Former Assembly Speaker John Pérez, who led the attempt to disincorporate Vernon and is now on the board of regents for the University of California, acknowledged “positive steps” but added: “I don’t think anybody can look at this and say things have fundamentally changed.”

What has changed

Vernon is a mainly industrial area near Downtown Los Angeles and Boyle Heights.

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Since it headed off the effort led by Pérez, Vernon increased its decennial Census count from 112 residents to 222 with a new affordable housing project that opened in 2015. This added 45 new apartments to an existing total citywide housing stock of only 31 dwellings.

This summer, in a major break with tradition, the city council opened the door for developers to further expand the number of dwellings in the city dramatically — from 76 to more than 900 — by building along the city’s western edge, the area farthest removed from the heaviest industry.

Before the affordable housing project opened, Vernon’s electorate consisted mainly of city employees who were given heavily discounted rents for city-owned housing, according to court, legislative and city records. Since this was virtually the only housing in town, those in power were in a rare position to select nearly all the voters who could keep them in power and there was an expectation that those voters would do just that.

The way city officials operated had one Superior Court judge comparing Vernon to a fiefdom. The city effectively had a permanent local government with a mayor who served for decades while living most of the time in a mansion out of town. He and his wife were convicted of voter fraud and perjury for falsely claiming to live in Vernon.

Another top administrator lived in a wealthy enclave near San Francisco, flying first class to Southern California while earning $1.65 million in salary and consulting fees in a single year. Still another longtime administrator who was being paid as much as $900,000 per year pleaded guilty to misusing other public money for expenses that prosecutors said included golf outings and massages.

These extreme practices ended after the disincorporation fight. Term limits were imposed, administrators’ salaries that were once among the highest in the state were reduced to normalcy, and a lottery procedure was implemented to decide who got to move into city-owned housing when vacancies occurred.

For the first time, those holding elective office would not be able to choose their electors.

Over a decade later, city government, Vernon-style, remains unusual, dedicated to what its website calls “a public-private partnership” — meaning business plays an outsized role, with its own designated representatives serving on city commissions.

The leader of the business community says he is optimistic about the city’s ability to overcome its environmental problems. Steve Freed, a warehouse complex owner who holds the rotating chairmanship of the city’s Chamber of Commerce, said the city is “slowly and surely transitioning from heavy, heavy industry to businesses that are more environmentally friendly.”

He estimated that half of all businesses in the city now are involved with goods storage and distribution rather than manufacturing. He also said he believes the city’s polluted soils can be made safe: “I don’t know of a single site in Vernon that couldn’t be remediated.”

The outsized role of business

An aerial view of the since-shuttered Farmer John slaughterhouse and complex.

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Vernon became an industrial mecca by welcoming businesses, including those that were unwelcome elsewhere, and offering them speedy government services and discounted fees, taxes and utilities compared to what they would pay elsewhere in the state.

During the disincorporation fight, Vernon’s Chamber of Commerce quantified these discounts, asserting that Vernon businesses saved up to 2,000% on local fees and taxes and anywhere from 20% to 40% on electric bills by buying power from Vernon’s municipal utility instead of from Southern California Edison. The discounts continue, but no estimates of their current value were available.

Following the disincorporation battle, the chamber has continued to play a dominant role in city politics through the financing of city elections. Five years of campaign contribution records reviewed by LAist show that political committees sponsored by the chamber have been the only reported source of funding for city council campaigns. These committees provided financial support for the campaigns of each of the five current part-time city council members, one of whom colleagues designate as mayor. None of the candidates’ campaigns reported receiving donations from anyone else.

The city’s highest stakes race (a pivotal election)

The chamber was especially active in 2021, in the most highly contested council races since the disincorporation threat passed. Business leaders who said they feared a return of corruption that could spark another disincorporation attempt backed the recall of two council members who’d pushed for a solar and wind project on land owned by the municipal utility — a main revenue source for the city. That set off alarms because some of the backers of that project were embroiled in a corruption probe in the City of Industry. Four men still face felony charges in that case, according to the L.A. District Attorney's office, with a preliminary hearing set for latest this week for three of the defendants.

A chamber-sponsored political committee raised $78,000 for the successful recall campaign, in which the two council members denied any wrongdoing. Of those funds, $50,000 came from the national headquarters of a labor union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. One of its local branches represents workers at the municipal utility.

The sums raised were extraordinary for a city with a total electorate of only 119. The council members were recalled and replaced by others whose candidacies received financial backing from the chamber.

The recall election appears to have invigorated efforts to expand further the city’s electorate by adding housing.

A larger residential population lies ahead

The city’s new expansion plan , approved by the city council at the beginning of August, envisions Vernon’s newest residents living in a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood of mixed residential, commercial and light industrial uses on the city’s far western boundary — the area farthest removed from its heaviest industries. Most buildings in the area now are small warehouses.

Plans call for new housing in Vernon.

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The city's report on expansion includes these preliminary concept drawings for residences on two privately owned lots.

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City planners say they hope the new neighborhood would eventually mesh with other neighborhoods developing in the Arts District of Los Angeles a few miles to the north.

The city is billing the residential expansion idea in part as a good government move — a way to produce a more robust electorate better able to resist the influence of any would-be corrupters. City planners observed in the report to the state that the current population “is still inadequate to ensure good governance and to avoid the threat of disincorporation, as manipulation of a small number of voters by an individual or entity could allow for a relatively easy takeover of control of the city.”

In approving the plan, the city council took pains to assure businesses that Vernon would not be straying from its primarily industrial nature. The council voted to require future renters or condominium buyers to sign acknowledgements that they are aware of the risks of living “in an industrial area in which annoyances or inconveniences associated with proximity to industrial uses such as odors, truck traffic, vibrations, noise and other neighborhood impacts are likely to be present.”

Given the housing shortage in greater L.A., history suggests this will not be much of an obstacle. When just one of Vernon’s city-owned apartments became available this summer, the city reported that more than 170 people signed up for the lottery.

Despite the city’s moves toward government transparency, which include council meetings that are available to watch online, most of its part-time elected officials appear media-shy.

Four council members, including the mayor, did not respond to interview requests.

The fifth, Melissa Ybarra, 46, responded to questions in writing. Ybarra is the only council member who grew up in Vernon.

Asked how she dealt with the city’s environmental challenges, she wrote in an email: “As a resident, I always saw Vernon as a hub for endless economic growth and job opportunities. As a council member, I have encouraged and supported the city's direction on improving our environmental challenges.”

The backstory on the disincorporation attempt

At the time of the disincorporation attempt, it wasn’t Vernon residents who were complaining about Vernon’s corruption and pollution problems. It was people who lived in the residential cities that surround it, whose air and land its industries were also fouling.

John Pérez, pictured in a 2010 visit to Washington, D.C. when he was speaker of the California Assembly.

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They got the attention of then-Assembly Speaker Pérez, who represented Vernon and the surrounding area, and in December 2010 Pérez took the bold step of introducing the bill that would have disincorporated the city and placed it under the jurisdiction of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors as an unincorporated area — the same status held by East Los Angeles.

His move set off a political firestorm that in turn launched a big payday for lawyers and lobbyists. The city spent about $9 million to fight disincorporation, while Vernon’s chamber mounted a smaller parallel campaign. Both predicted that disincorporation would lead to a regional economic catastrophe, with businesses choosing to leave once they no longer had their discounts, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of blue-collar jobs.

Although most of the workforce in the city was unorganized, major unions that represented slivers of the workforce, including the Teamsters, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the United Food and Commercial Workers, lined up with employers to make the same point.

The fight was bitter, and Pérez, a former union official himself, recalls being at odds with old friends from labor, confronted by strangers in restaurants, tailed wherever he went by private detectives presumably hired by the bill’s opponents, and followed by Vernon police every time he drove through the city. These experiences were painful enough that, when LAist recently asked for his recollections, he wise-cracked, “Are you willing to pay the therapist’s bills after I talk to you?”

Pérez’s legislation sailed through the Assembly. But it hit a roadblock in the state Senate, where a political rival who represented the same area objected. Then-state Sen. Kevin de León, who had lost a battle with Pérez to be Assembly Speaker before moving on to the Senate, recognized that Vernon had to change. But his method was to negotiate.

De León, now on the L.A. city council, did not respond to interview requests. De León recently decided to run for reelection despite calls for him to resign following his participation in a secretly recorded conversation that featured racist language.

To avoid disincorporation, the city agreed to de León’s demands that it make democratic reforms and agreed to hire the late John Van de Kamp, a former Los Angeles County district attorney and California attorney general, to advise it on ethics.

The result was a sea change in governance culture. In a few years, administrators’ salaries were reduced to normal ranges. The city’s top administrator, a position that once paid as much as $1.65 million annually, is now paid $349,000. Competitive elections were held. City employees were accorded job security. Term limits on elected officials were imposed. Public records became easy to obtain, a lottery was created for city-owned residences and the city agreed to create additional housing in the form of the affordable housing project on city-donated land.

Dilia Ortega, Youth Program Coordinator at Communities for a Better Environment, photographed near the now closed Exide plant. This is a stop in the "toxic tours" led by Ortega and other members of Communities for a Better Environment.

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Unfortunately, the affordable housing project wound up being in the path of airborne lead contamination from Vernon’s now-shuttered Exide battery recycling plant. The state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control is attempting to remediate.

The city disavowed only one aspect of the deal it had made with de León. Vernon city officials had pledged to make $60 million in contributions over 10 years to neighboring cities — as a sort of unofficial penance for having allowed its industries to pollute them.

Once the city’s survival was assured, Vernon’s leaders backed away from that pledge, blaming a state action that restricted access to certain funds the city had counted on to fulfill its commitment. The city instead has doled out $10 million over 12 years, according to city spokesperson Margie Otto.

De León, who had statewide political ambitions at the time, didn’t publicly object and got a nice political plum out of the abridged deal. Not only was he hailed by Vernon’s business interests, he was also treated as a hero in the neighboring city of Huntington Park, where Vernon helped pay for new synthetic turf on the main public soccer field. When it was unveiled, that turf bore the politician’s name in big letters: “Hon. Kevin de Léon Campo de Fútbol.”

President Trump is set to address the nation on the Iran war at 9 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday night, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying he would be providing "an important update," without providing further details.

On Tuesday, Trump said he expected the conflict to be over in two to three weeks, adding, "we'll be leaving very soon," and promising gas prices would then "come tumbling down."

Trump shrugged off what would happen to the blockaded Strait of Hormuz – which has cut off one fifth of the world's oil supply – saying, "we're not going to have anything to do with it." He said that it wouldn't affect the U.S. and would be something for other countries to deal with.

"They'll be able to fend for themselves," he said, having previously told European allies who have refused to enter the war to "go get your own oil!"

The assertion to wrap up the war quickly comes just days after Trump threatened to up the ante if there was no deal and Tehran didn't reopen the strait. He said he could seize Iran's oil and blow up all of their Electric Generating Plants and desalinization plants. He also said he was considering an invasion of Iran's key oil export terminal, Kharg Island.

But on Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed his boss's latest comments on the war being over in a matter of weeks, saying the main goal of preventing Iran from being able to build a nuclear weapon had been achieved.

Rubio has expressed frustration in recent days over news reports accusing the administration of lacking clear objectives in Iran.

He said the objectives were: the destruction of Iran's air force, the destruction of its navy, the "severe diminishing" of its capability to launch missiles, and the destruction of its factories.

Regime change, previously touted by the administration as a goal, was not mentioned. Earlier this week Trump said he considered regime change had been achieved, despite the fact that it remains a hardline theocracy led by the son of the previous ayatollah.

Here are more updates on day 33 of the Iran war:

Fighting overnight | World leaders | Iran | American journalist kidnapped| Hegseth visits troops | Aid hold up | Peace plan

Regional Fighting overnight

The Israel Defense Forces said they hit 230 targets in Tehran while also widening an invasion into Lebanon. Meanwhile, Iran is striking back at Gulf neighbors, especially military bases used by the U.S. this week. One of those attacks injured as many as 20 U.S. service members in Saudi Arabia.

Since the war began over a month ago, 13 U.S. service members have been killed. Iran says more than 1,700 people have been killed in Iran.

People take cover in a bomb shelter as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strikes in Bnei Brak, Israel, Wednesday, April 1, 2026.

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Also overnight Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed missile attacks on Israel, which the Israeli military intercepted. The Houthis have vowed an "escalation" in attacks.

Israel's emergency services reported Iranian missiles fired at central Israel had injured 14 people, including children.

At Kuwait's international airport, Iranian drones hit fuel depots, causing a huge fire, a day after a Kuwaiti oil tanker off Dubai was hit.

In Qatar on Wednesday, a missile launched by Iran hit an oil tanker leased to QatarEnergies, which said no one was injured and reported no environmental impact.

UK, Australia leaders speak

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer addressed the nation on Wednesday about how the rising cost of living caused by the conflict will affect British citizens and what his government is doing to try to mitigate that.

He repeated a previous vow that the U.K. will only take "defensive" action against Iranian attacks in the Middle East and would not get drawn into the war. He also announced his foreign secretary would organize an international summit on the Strait of Hormuz aimed at restoring freedom of navigation.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also gave a national address on the war on Wednesday.

Earlier this week Albanese announced his government would halve the fuel tax for three months to give Australians some respite from the rising costs.

He urged Australians to use public transport and not to hoard fuel. He also warned that "the reality is, the economic shocks caused by this war will be with us for months."

'Hospitality' is over, says Iran

Ebrahim Azizi, the head of Iranian Parliament's National Security Committee, said on X in a message to Trump that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen "but not for you."

People sift through rubble in the aftermath of a drone attack on a residential building in which one civilian was killed on March 31, 2026 in eastern Tehran, Iran.

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Referring to the period since Iran's 1979 revolution, he added: "47 years of hospitality are over forever."

Iran this week approved a bill to charge vessels for crossing the vital economic waterway.

"Trump has finally achieved his dream of 'regime change' — but in the region's maritime regime!" Azizi said.

It's not just vessels that are now trapped near the Strait of Hormuz.

An estimated twenty thousand seafarers are onboard — in an active warzone — and the U.N. is trying to extricate them.

Most seafarers are from the Philippines, Bangladesh and India and some vessels are reportedly running low on food and water.

The U.N.'s International Maritime Organization is negotiating with all sides to try to evacuate them.

American journalist kidnapped in Iraq

American freelance reporter Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in Baghdad Tuesday, according to Al-Monitor, a Middle Eastern news site for which she has written.

Iraqi security forces said they intercepted a vehicle that crashed and arrested one of the suspected kidnappers, but are still searching for the kidnapped journalist and other suspects.

U.S. officials say they're working to get her released.

"The State Department previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them and we will continue to coordinate with the FBI to ensure their release as quickly as possible," Dylan Johnson, the assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, said on social media.

He said Americans, including media workers, have been advised not to travel to Iraq and should leave the country. The statement did not condemn the kidnapping or express concern.

Johnson said Iraqi authorities apprehended a suspect associated with Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah, believed to be involved in the kidnapping.

Press freedom organizations expressed deep concern. The Committee to Protect Journalists called on "Iraqi authorities to do everything in their power to locate Shelley Kittleson, ensure her immediate and safe release, and hold those responsible to account."

Based in Rome, Kittleson has reported on Iraq, as well as Syria and Afghanistan, for years, according to Al-Monitor.

Reporters Without Borders said she is "very familiar with Iraq, where she stays for extended periods."

"RSF stands alongside her loved ones and colleagues during this painful wait," the organization said.

Al-Monitor said in a statement it is "deeply alarmed" by her kidnapping. "We stand by her vital reporting from the region and call for her swift return to continue her important work," it said.

U.S. defense secretary visits troops

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made an undisclosed trip to the Middle East to visit troops on military bases over the weekend. He did not divulge the location for the troops' safety.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks to members of the media during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Tuesday, March 31, 2026.

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"I spoke to Air Force and Navy pilots on the flight line who every day both deliver bombs deep into Iran, but also shoot down drones defending their base. Many had just returned from the skies of Iran and Tehran," he told reporters in a briefing Tuesday.

He said he "witnessed an urgency to finish the job" and tried to draw a comparison with America's earlier drawn-out wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said the U.S. is improving bunkers and layered air defenses as a priority to protect troops and aircraft.

This comes after more than a dozen U.S. service members were injured, several severely, and U.S. aircraft were damaged in Iranian strikes on a base in Saudi Arabia last Friday. The Pentagon says 13 U.S. service members have been killed and 300 wounded in what it calls Operation Epic Fury.

He repeated the administration's assertion that the U.S. is negotiating with Iran, despite Iranian officials' denial that talks are happening.

Aid hold up

The World Food Program says tens of thousands of tons of food aid are stuck in ports as a consequence of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

The WFP says there is a whole disruption in the global supply chain with carriers not able to use the Strait of Hormuz and choosing not to use the Suez Canal through Egypt out of concerns of attacks there, too.

The agency says this is adding a month to shipping time and costing more because of spikes in fuel prices from the war. It noted that as people around the world pay more for fuel, more families will struggle to put food on the table.

Some 45 million additional people will fall into acute hunger around the world if current conditions continue through June- reaching 363 million globally, the WFP said.

Pakistan, China release statement

Pakistan's and China's foreign ministers issued a joint statement on Tuesday calling for talks to the war on Iran as part of a broader peace plan. The statement called for a halt to fire, an end to attacks on civilian infrastructure, and reopening of the State of Hormuz.

For days Pakistani officials had said they hope to help mediate talks to end a war that has seized up the global economy, pushed up the price of fossil fuels, and key commodities like fertilizer — and that has killed thousands of people, mostly Iranians and Lebanese.

The joint statement with China came after high-ranking Pakistani officials led a flurry of meetings with regional powers. China is Iran's biggest customer for oil — and it's seen as sympathetic to the country.

Jane Arraf in Amman, Jordan, Diaa Hadid in Mumbai, Quil Lawrence in New York, Giles Snyder, Michele Kelemen in Washington, Emily Feng in Van, Turkey, Aya Batrawy in Dubai, and Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg contributed to reporting.
Copyright 2026 NPR

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The Supreme Court chamber will be packed on Wednesday, as the justices hear arguments in a case that almost certainly will result in a historic ruling. At issue is President Trump's challenge to a constitutional provision that has long been interpreted to guarantee American citizenship to every child born in the United States.

Listen to arguments and live NPR special coverage beginning at 10 a.m. ET:

Trump has long maintained that the Constitution does not guarantee birthright citizenship. So, on Day 1 of his second term, he issued an executive order barring automatic citizenship for any baby born in the U.S. whose parents entered the country illegally or who were here legally, but on a temporary, or even a long-term visa.

"We are the only country in the world that does this with birthright," Trump said as he signed the executive order. "And it's absolutely ridiculous."

That actually is not true. There are nearly 33 countries, mainly in North and South America, that have birthright citizenship — including, among others, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

Can't see the video above? Watch it here.

D-Day for Trump's attack on birthright citizenship

But Trump has long been determined to rid this country of its longstanding protection for birthright citizenship. Wednesday is D-Day in that effort, and to understand the issues, it's worth taking a stroll through American history.

While citizenship was not defined at the nation's founding, the colonists were largely pro-immigrant, according to University of Virginia law professor Amanda Frost, author of American Birthright: How the Citizenship Clause made America American, due out in September.

The founders "wanted to populate this mostly empty continent," she observes, adding that, in fact, one of the complaints against the British king in the Declaration of Independence was that the British "were discouraging immigration."

Indeed, she notes, after the Revolutionary War, even those who had been loyal to the king but wanted to stay in America were granted U.S. citizenship.

Trump's view of the 14th Amendment

Birthright citizenship didn't make it into the Constitution, though, until after the Civil War, when the nation enacted the 14th Amendment to reverse the Supreme Court's infamous Dred Scott decision — a ruling that in 1857 declared that Black people, enslaved or free, could not be citizens of the United States.

To undo that decision, the post-Civil War Congress passed a constitutional amendment that defines citizenship in broad terms. It says, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

President Trump, however, maintains that the constitutional amendment was intended to be more limited than it has been in practice. "This was meant for the slaves … for the children of slaves," Trump said last January. "I'm in favor of that. But it wasn't meant for the entire world to occupy the United States." 

But as the University of Virginia's Frost notes, the framers of the 14th Amendment had more than one explicit purpose. They wanted a clear, bright line definition of citizenship; they wanted the former slaves and their children to be citizens, and they wanted to include immigrants, many of whom were the targets of great hostility.

"I like to remind my students that between 1845 and 1855, approximately 2 million people from Ireland fled to the United States," Frost observes. They were fleeing from famine and harsh British rule. And while "there certainly was some prejudice and discrimination and xenophobia," she says, "their children soon would automatically become American citizens" when born on U.S. soil after enactment of the 14th Amendment.

Trump's interpretation of the 14th Amendment is avowedly far more restricted. What's more, it has not been embraced by the courts or the legal norms of the country for 160 years.

The counterargument

"The president's executive order is attempting a radical rewriting of that 14th Amendment guarantee to all of us," says Cecillia Wang, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Indeed, even as both Republican and Democratic administrations have sought in modern times to deport large numbers of individuals who have entered the country illegally, the notion of birthright citizenship has remained so entrenched that during World War II when Japanese citizens were held as enemy aliens in U.S. detention camps, their newborn children were automatically granted American citizenship because they were born on U.S. soil. And Congress later codified that understanding in the 1940s, '50s and '60s.

At the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the justices are likely to focus on some of the key court decisions that have protected birthright citizenship during the past century and a half. Perhaps most important among these is the case of Wong Kim Ark, born in San Francisco in 1873 to Chinese immigrants who ran a small business in the city. Back then, immigrants like Wong's parents were largely free to enter the U.S. without any documentation, but his parents eventually returned to China. And after their son visited them in 1895, officers at the port in San Francisco refused to allow him back into the United States, contending that he was not a qualified citizen.

Wong challenged the denial and, in 1898, the Supreme Court ruled in his favor. By a 6-2 vote, the justices interpreted the words "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" to mean that all children born in the U.S. were automatically granted citizenship. The court noted that only three exceptions were specified in the amendment: The children of diplomats were not deemed to be U.S. citizens because their allegiance was to another country; the children of occupying armies were similarly excepted, as were the children of Native American tribes. Of these three exceptions, the only one that still applies is to the children of diplomats, as there are no invading armies, and Native Americans were granted automatic citizenship in 1924.

The Trump administration, however, argues that Wong Kim Ark's situation was very different from many of the children who become automatic American citizens today, because Wong's parents, though undocumented, were here legally, by virtue of having a permanent residence in the U.S. And the Trump administration points to language in the 1898 Supreme Court opinion that assumes the parents had legal status in the country because they had a permanent residence in San Francisco.

The Trump administration makes an even broader argument. "An individual who is naturally born in the United States is only considered a citizen if their parents have allegiance to the nation," says Daniel Epstein, vice president of America First Legal, the organization founded by the architect of Trump's immigration policies, Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff. "It is a misdemeanor to come into the United States without authorization. That is a crime," he says. "That is strong evidence that you don't kind of meet the traditional notion of allegiance."

"We do not punish children for the sins of their parents"

Countering that argument, the ACLU's Wang will tell the Supreme Court that the men who wrote the 14th Amendment deliberately chose to confer automatic citizenship on the child, not the parent.

"And the idea — that actually goes back to the founding — is that in America we do not punish children for the sins of their fathers, but instead we wipe the slate clean. When you're born in this country, we're all Americans, all the same," Wang says.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is supporting the president's position, along with 11 other GOP senators, and 16 House members, who signed on to the America First brief.

"As a policy matter, birthright citizenship is stupid," Cruz says, "because it incentivizes illegal immigration. It makes absolutely no sense that someone breaks the law and they get rewarded with a very, very, precious gift, which is American citizenship."

Can an executive order trump a constitutional amendment?

The ACLU's Wang counters that Trump is trying, by executive order, to change the meaning of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, a measure that was approved overwhelmingly by the Congress in 1866 and, after a great public debate, ratified by more than three-quarters of the states. She argues that the consequences of such a dramatic change by executive fiat would have untold consequences.

"What will immediately happen is that every month, tens of thousands of U.S.-born babies will be stripped of their citizenship. They may be stateless because their parents' country of nationality may not consider them to be citizens. And so you'll see a permanent underclass of people who have no nationality, who are living in the United States, who can't pass on their nationality to their children born in the U.S.

In a separate brief, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops stresses the problems that would be created by generation after generation of children who are stateless, with no country to call home, and no citizenship to pass on to their children.

"The children … would be the ones to bear the brunt of this," says Bishop Daniel Flores, vice president of the bishops conference. "I have people asking this now in my diocese. 'Bishop, am I going to get into trouble if I give food to somebody that I'm not sure of their documentation? … Can we help these people? Because we think we need to, because they're people and they were born here."

The Trump administration counters that birthright citizenship raises two other problems: a generic potential threat to national security and the problem of so-called "birth tourism."

In fact, even birthright defenders concede that a cottage industry has long existed in which women pay money to come to the U.S. and have their children here. But the numbers are consistently very small. Even the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favors limited immigration, estimates only 20,000 to 26,000 birth tourism children are born in the U.S. each year, compared to the overall birth count of 3.6 million babies born each year.

Daniel Epstein of America First Legal contends that numbers are not important. "I view just one illegal act as illegal, and birth tourism is illegal and it's against the law, and the law matters."

Population experts say that if automatic birthright citizenship were to be voided, the consequences would be profound — and counterintuitive. The Population Research Institute at Penn State, for instance, estimates that a repeal of birthright citizenship would result in 2.7 million more people living here illegally by 2045, people who previously would have been entitled to birthright citizenship, but now have no such citizenship for themselves or to pass on to their children or the generations thereafter.

Also likely to come up at today's Supreme Court argument are practical questions, like those raised by Justice Brett Kavanaugh last year in a related case. How would a hospital know that the parents of a child are illegally in the country? What would hospitals do with a newborn? What would states do? The answer from Trump's solicitor general, D. John Sauer, was "Federal officials will have to figure that out."

Copyright 2026 NPR

With the exception of a stray morning shower here and there, Southern California is in for a dry and sunny afternoon.

The afternoon sun will warm up the area a few degrees today. For the coasts, we're looking at highs around 67 degrees and up to the low 70s for the inland coast.

The valleys will see similar temperatures with highs from 68 to 74 degrees. The Inland Empire, meanwhile, will be cooler with highs around 63 degrees.

In Coachella Valley, temps will reach 81 to 86 degrees.

A wind advisory still is in effect for the San Bernardino, Riverside County mountains, including Coachella Valley, until 11 p.m. Thursday. The Antelope Valley will see some gusty winds later this afternoon as well.

It’s been a tough year for non-alcoholic (NA) bars. Since we wrote our last NA bar round up, during 2024's Dry January, at least three NA-only bars have shut down in Los Angeles or gone online retail-only. The fanfare that came with New Bar’s openings in Venice and West Hollywood are long gone and the '90s-themed events at Stay Zero Proof in Chinatown have said buh-bye.

Yet more people than ever are avoiding alcohol. So what’s going on?

Victim of success

In some ways, perhaps, the bars that closed, like the two L.A. outposts of San Francisco’s New Bar, were victims of their own success. “I think that the non-alcoholic space has evolved,” Bar Nuda pop-up owner Pablo Murillo said. 


”So when New Bar came out, they were pretty much the only ones doing what they were doing. There's so many more options now, with big-box retailers that are offering great non-alcoholic options and possibly at a lower price point.”

The interior of The New Bar on Lincoln Boulevard in Venice: It's a store, but also much more.

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Nihal Shaikh

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The New Bar

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That can have an impact even if you offer a top-notch experience. Stay Zero Proof was the brainchild of Stacey Mann, a film set designer-turned-interior designer who opened the cozy bar in Chinatown in 2024. It closed last year.

“We built an amazing space with such a great vibe and a terrific staff and, in my opinion, the best NA cocktails around. They were exceptional. They were designed and developed by Derek Brown out of D.C., who really led the movement quite a long time ago,” Mann said. “And that wasn't enough to get people in the doors spending money.”

Mann, who is 39 years sober, said she was surprised at how few sober customers came in the door compared to her “sober curious” clientele. “It did not bring in the sober crowd. ... It's the cost, [and] it's the idea that a lot of sober people aren't really thinking about sitting in bars.”

Not just Dry January

These bar owners all say that Dry January is quickly becoming a thing of the past — their customers are drinking less alcohol but hanging out more all year-round.

Obreanna McReynolds and Dean Peterson, co-owners of Burden of Proof

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Taylor Kealy/Taylor Kealy

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“I think it kind of spreads throughout the whole year, just a kind of lifestyle versus like a 30-day [challenge]," said Dean Peterson, who runs Burden of Proof, an NA bar in Pasadena.

That shift also has spurred bars that do serve alcohol to up their NA game. Owner of Abbot Kinney speakeasy Force of Nature (which serves both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages) Leena Culhane said her January was just as busy as her December.

Community

It's not just being alcohol-free. The NA bars that are still in business are adapting to meet other customer needs too.

At Kavahana, the Golden Nectar drink is made with kava nectar, turmeric, fresh lemon, ginger, and sparkling water.

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Courtesy Kavahana

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“We always wanted to have a place in L.A. that we could actually just go and chill out and relax at and play games, board games, watch an open mic, watch a comedy show, do yoga,” said Kavahana co-founder Neil Bahtia, whose Santa Monica spot features drinks that use the kava root, a Pacific Island-native herb, instead of alcohol.

“These are different activities that I think are really important to having a brick and mortar, that maybe a traditional bar doesn't really need to do. I think for us, it's always been about curating a really nice experience.”

Stay’s Mann agreed, even though it wasn’t enough to keep her venue open.

“In order to sustain the model, you really have to build out programming,” she said. “Our biggest night was comedy night, and that was amazing.”


Meanwhile, the owners of Free Spirited in Alhambra, Amber Pennington and Arleo De Guzman, focus on being vegan and allergy-friendly in addition to providing a completely 0.0% alcohol experience, which means people find their place through several different channels.

“The culture still isn't to ‘go out to drink non-alcoholic,’" Pennington said. “Hopefully that will change in the next couple years, but having the food in addition ... that's super helpful.”

De Guzman added that “People don't want to go out just to eat nowadays. They want to have more value added to their experience, but also it helps in a non-alcoholic bar [to host events], because some people are still afraid to go out and socialize sober, so attach an event that's in the space and people are like, ‘OK, I'm going to go to this thing. I guess I'll see what the vibe is.’”

Something special

Murillo of Bar Nuda’s Mexican-inspired concept is focused on craft non-alcoholic cocktails that draw on his bartending experience.

“People, I think, aren't looking so much for a non-alcoholic version of a margarita. They're looking for something more creative, something that they possibly have never tasted before,” he said.

Culhane agreed that now a non-alcoholic option can feel just as special as that glass of champagne.

“People often are choosing wine based on what the label looks like. We can't underestimate how much the eye is kind of the first sense of taste,” Culhane said. “I think that's the most important part — feeling like there's an adult experience of something that's convivial and celebratory, and just special.”

As drinkers and non-drinkers alike seek out alternatives to booze, it’s clear these businesses need more than just a great mocktail to stay alive. But with trying times and relentlessly stressful news, the neighborhood watering hole serves a larger purpose of being a third space, and these bars are finding Angelenos willing to pay the premium for a well-balanced mocktail — as long as there’s a little something extra on the side.