Topline:
A majority of the Supreme Court justices seemed skeptical of the Trump administration's argument on birthright citizenship yesterday and appeared ready to rule in favor of upholding automatic citizenship for babies born on U.S. soil.
Keep reading... for details on the questions posed to lawyers, including conservative justices tough questions for President Donald Trump's solicitor general, D. John Sauer.
A majority of the Supreme Court justices seemed skeptical of the Trump administration's argument on birthright citizenship Wednesday and appeared ready to rule in favor of upholding automatic citizenship for babies born on U.S. soil.
That included multiple conservative justices, who had tough questions for Trump's solicitor general, D. John Sauer. Sauer argued the government's case against birthright citizenship, the practice enshrined in the 14th Amendment in the Constitution, which became law in 1868.
It states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
Sauer, however, asserted that contrary to the law as understood for 160 years, the 14th Amendment does not confer automatic citizenship on every baby born in the U.S. He told the court that the true meaning of the amendment was to grant citizenship to former slaves and their children, no more. And, therefore, President Trump was well within his rights when he signed an executive order barring citizenship for children born in this country to parents who are illegally here, or who are here legally, but on long-term visas.
But Chief Justice John Roberts was doubtful about that executive order.
"The examples you give to support that strike me as very quirky," Roberts told Sauer. "And then you expand it to a whole class of illegal aliens," he continued. "I'm not quite sure how you can get to that big group from such tiny and, sort of, idiosyncratic examples."
"We're in a new world now," Sauer contended. "A billion people are one plane ride away from having a child who's a U.S. citizen."
"It's a new world," Roberts replied, but "it's the same Constitution."
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Justice Neil Gorsuch noted that the Trump executive order focuses on parents, but the 14th Amendment focuses on birthright for the child. He asked: how would you know who the father is, or the mother? What if they're unmarried? Whose house do they live in?
Justice Amy Coney Barrett questioned the practicality of the Trump proposal.
"How would it work?" she asked. "How would you adjudicate these cases? You're not going to know at the time of birth whether they have the intent to stay or not, including U.S. citizens by the way."
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wondered, "So [are] we bringing pregnant women in for depositions? What are we doing to figure this out?"
The justices also grilled Sauer about the landmark 1898 case of Wong Kim Ark, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Wong had birthright citizenship, because he was born in the United States. Sauer, however, maintained that Wong was only given birthright citizenship because his parents were legally domiciled in the United States.
"I think even your brief concedes that the position you're taking now is a revisionist one with respect to a substantial part of our history," Justice Elena Kagan said. "That's, in part, because of Wong Kim Ark and the way people have read that case ever since then."
Challenging the Trump birthright plan, the American Civil Liberties Union's Cecillia Wang told the Supreme Court that the 14th Amendment was enacted after the Civil War in order to have a universal rule of citizenship, subject to a closed set of exceptions, and that the birthright applies to all children born on U.S. soil.
"We can't take the current administration's policy considerations into account to try to re-engineer and radically re-interpret the original meaning of the 14th Amendment," Wang argued.
However, in reference to current perceived immigration problems versus those that existed at the time the 14th Amendment was enacted, Kagan posited: "What do we do if we think we have a new problem that didn't exist at the time of the 14th Amendment?"
Justice Brett Kavanaugh followed up, asking whether the provisions of the 14th Amendment are frozen in place.
Yes, replied Wang, because the framers of it were intent on putting the citizenship question out of the reach of Congress.
The decision, expected by this summer, will almost certainly result in a historic ruling, and Trump himself made his mark at the court Wednesday morning.
He became the first sitting president known to attend oral arguments, signaling the importance of this issue to him personally.
After leaving the courtroom before the arguments were over, he wrote on Truth Social, "We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow 'Birthright' Citizenship!" In fact, roughly three dozen countries offer it.
Trump arrived about 10 minutes before the arguments began, listened to Sauer field the justices' questions for a little over an hour and then left a few minutes after Wang began to make her case.
Volunteers with the ACLU, joined by immigrant rights organizations like CASA and the League of United Latin American Citizens, handed out fliers that read "protect birthright citizenship" and "14th Amendment."
"We're all out here to protect the fundamental right of birthright citizenship. It's written in the 14th Amendment," said Anu Joshi, a staff member of the ACLU. "It's what makes us America."
Among the crowd were several people who were citizens by birthright themselves.
"I am a birthright citizen so this hits really, really close to home because without birthright citizenship I wouldn't even have my citizenship in the United States," said Stephanie Sanchez, a first-generation Mexican-American who came to the rally. "Here I am representing my community and fighting back."
After the arguments, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero told the crowd he felt confident in the way the arguments played out inside.
"We are fighting for the heart and soul of this country. The fight to protect birthright citizenship is about our neighbors, our families, our kids. It's not about the past, it's about the future," he said. "We will only accept what is just and what is right."
Largely absent from the crowd were proponents of the president's position.
Domenico Montanaro, Ximena Bustillo and Anusha Mathur contributed to this story.
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The hunt for stickers, produced by the Italian company Panini, is a decades-old World Cup tradition that's especially popular in Latin America and Europe. In the U.S., interest has been building steadily over the years, but this summer, the buzz is bigger than ever.
Why now: Jason Howarth, senior vice president of marketing and athlete relations at Panini America, said retailers reported being sold out of sticker packets within a week of the release in late April — unseen in previous World Cup cycles.
The surging demand comes as collectors face their toughest challenge yet. This year, they need to track down 980 distinct stickers to put the album to bed — 310 more than at the 2022 World Cup and a record number for the company. It's a reflection of the upcoming tournament's historic scale, which is expanding from 32 teams to 48 across three countries.
Read on ... for more about the joy and trials of World Cup sticker collecting.
NEW YORK — In Brian Sanchez's slice of Astoria, the FIFA World Cup doesn't begin with the first match. It starts weeks earlier, with the arrival of a sticker album — and a mission.
It's a deceptively simple one: Fill the book with all the stickers representing World Cup teams, players, venues and other tournament details. But these stickers are sold in blind packs, similar to baseball or Pokémon cards, which adds to the fun and the headaches.
Sanchez, 20, has tried to complete the task before but never succeeded. This year, he planned to skip it altogether, but it was hard to ignore the chatter and excitement among his friends and family — both at home and abroad — who were all participating.
"Honestly it comes down to a little bit of FOMO," he said.
The hunt for stickers, produced by the Italian company Panini, is a decades-old World Cup tradition that's especially popular in Latin America and Europe. In the U.S., interest has been building steadily over the years, but this summer, the buzz is bigger than ever.
Jason Howarth, senior vice president of marketing and athlete relations at Panini America, said retailers reported being sold out of sticker packets within a week of the release in late April — unseen in previous World Cup cycles.
"There's a different energy coming out of it," he said. "Right now, it's outpacing where we were in 2022 by three to five times."
The surging demand comes as collectors face their toughest challenge yet. This year, they need to track down 980 distinct stickers to put the album to bed — 310 more than at the 2022 World Cup and a record number for the company. It's a reflection of the upcoming tournament's historic scale, which is expanding from 32 teams to 48 across three countries.
This edition will also be the second to last men's World Cup sticker album produced by Panini — ending a partnership that stretches back over five decades. Last month, FIFA announced that starting in 2031, U.S.-based Fanatics will be the official supplier of FIFA soccer cards, trading cards and stickers.
On a recent afternoon in Central Park, Sanchez met up with other collectors. Hunched over stacks of stickers, some two dozen people inspected the offerings with laser focus.
With only four stickers missing, Sanchez was already looking forward to earning bragging rights as the first person in his family across the finish line this year.
" I'm feeling pretty accomplished," he said. "I've been trying to get a win, and this is gonna be a huge win for me."
A single pack of seven stickers — available online, at corner stores or drugstore chains like Walgreens and CVS — now cost $2, compared to four years ago when five stickers retailed for around $1. That means simply buying enough packs to accumulate 980 stickers would total $280.
Given the costs, finishing the book is rarely a solitary pursuit, and aficionados often meet up to spread the wealth, according to Crista Latvis, 26, who organized the recent sticker swap in Central Park.
"You can't just buy your way into it," she said. "Otherwise, it's super expensive and you've got to be very lucky."
For many, these gatherings are part of the pastime's draw.
"It's great to meet other people who are also doing it and also excited for the World Cup, especially since it's here," Latvis said.
Sebastian Clavijo, who attended Latvis' swap, said he spent tens of thousands of dollars on his quest this year. Clavijo, 32, has been collecting Panini stickers since he was 4. This year, his goal is to complete the book only with pieces featuring red and purple borders — an even rarer get.
" I just like soccer and I love collecting," he said. "That's my hobby, you know?"
In 2022, Panini introduced stickers with different colored borders that vary in rarity. That element has been an especially big hit with the trading card community and contributed to the hobby's appeal in the U.S., according to Howarth from Panini America.
Demand has always existed in New York, Texas, Florida, among other big states, but it's also emerging nationwide, in places like Phoenix and the Northwest, according to Howarth.
" As soccer has grown, so has Panini," he said.
Howarth believes part of this year's popularity stems from the expanded World Cup format. Teams that have never qualified for the tournament — and therefore never been sticker-fied by Panini — are finally getting their moment.
For some, completing the sticker album is driven by nostalgia for their childhood, family or home country.
Linda Lino never heard of the hobby until she was 18, and her grandmother gave her a Panini sticker book. That was in 2014. Lino has completed every World Cup edition since, in part in memory of her late grandmother.
"It started with my grandma and then it became like a whole family thing," Lino said. "I love the community that it brings together."
That's especially true with her father, who never had the chance to collect stickers when he was a kid in Peru, Lino said. Now, the two are making up for lost time.
"My dad is so excited," she said. "He's like 'I want to help you. I want to put the stickers together.'"
Clemente Lisi, a sports journalist who has written about the Panini sticker phenomenon, said the sticker album serves as a time capsule for the World Cup. With the tournament's return to the U.S. after 32 years, he expects it will produce more first-time collectors looking for a way to remember this summer.
"This may be the only tangible thing from a World Cup unless you go to a game," he said.
Lisi, who also runs Planet Soccer on Substack, anticipates that the U.S. company Fanatics will further cater to the market at home.
" It'll even become more American and more baked into our culture," he said.
Sanchez, the college student from Astoria, dabbles in collecting other items, like vinyls and trading cards. But what he appreciates most about the Panini sticker scene is its supportive and rarely competitive nature.
" The community around the World Cup stickers is something like I've never seen before," he said. "The community is just so nice."
After countless hours of trading and visiting multiple convenience stores, Sanchez found his 980th and final sticker at the swap in Central Park. It was of the Iraqi team. He let out a gasp, followed by a smile that spanned ear to ear. "Let's goooo!"
With a mountain of duplicates left, Sanchez wasn't ready to move on just yet. His next step was to help his mother finish her album.
" I'm going to take a break," he said. "I'm going to celebrate today and then get back to it."
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Soundpedro, the annual sound art festival, returns to the Angels Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro for its tenth year Saturday night.
The backstory: Once a year, dozens of sound artists converge on the hill with views of the harbor below to perform their audio art, which can range from serene to “beautifully weird.”
What to expect: This year includes a performer bending a bar of tin with his bare hands to get it to emit what’s called a "tin cry" and synthesizer-based soundscapes that take inspiration from both the ocean and the industrial space below.
When to go: Soundpedro is free and lasts from 7-10 p.m. Saturday.
More info at the Soundpedro website.
Topline:
Soundpedro, the annual sound art festival, returns to the Angels Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro for its 10th year Saturday night.
The backstory: Once a year, dozens of sound artists converge on the hill with views of the harbor below to perform their audio art, which can range from serene to “beautifully weird.”
What to expect: This year includes a performer bending a bar of tin with his bare hands to get it to emit what’s called a "tin cry" and synthesizer-based soundscapes that take inspiration from both the ocean and the industrial space below.
When to go: Soundpedro is free and lasts from 7-10 p.m. Saturday.
More info at the Soundpedro website.
Topline:
This Spring, Metro has been giving tours of Union Station, showing the architecture and history of one of L.A.’s major landmarks.
Why it matters: The 1939 building mixes art deco and Spanish colonial in a Mission Moderne style and earned a spot in the National Register of Historic Places.
The backstory: It’s called Union Station because when it opened in 1939, it joined the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway.
The displacement: A thriving Chinese American neighborhood was destroyed to make way for Union Station’s construction. The tour explores this history through an art piece titled include "City of Dreams/River of History," created by artists May Sun and Richard Wyatt in 1995.
Coming up: Union Station is the site of an official FIFA-sponsored Fan Zone from June 25-28 as the transportation hub becomes a World Cup soccer hub.
Go deeper: The controversy behind Union Station’s construction
You may know about Union Station as an L.A. landmark or as a transportation hub — but how much do you know about its rich architectural history?
To foster that interest and knowledge, Metro created a series of public tours of the station this spring.
“There's so much that you might just walk by without really having the opportunity to delve deeply into,” said Zipporah Lax Yamamoto, deputy executive officer of Metro’s art program. “[The tours are] a really wonderful opportunity to be able to spend time with the station, learn more about the historic landmark, which belongs to all of us.”
It’s called Union Station because when it opened in 1939, it connected the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway.
While it was designed by father-and-son team Donald and John Parkinson, the architects who gave us L.A. City Hall, its style is very different. Union Station’s interior and exterior mixes art deco, Spanish colonial and other styles into a hybrid dubbed Mission Moderne.
As you begin the tour, entering from Alameda Street, tour guides ask you to look up at the decorative elements in the high ceilings. The beams and geometric patterns may look like wood — but they’re actually just painted to look that way.
Along the way, the tour gives background on pieces created more than 30 years ago. These include "City of Dreams/River of History" by artists May Sun and Richard Wyatt in 1995. Sun’s piece uses remnants of the Chinese American homes torn down to build the station, a reference to the high price that community paid for this building’s construction.
“It was an enormous price. Chinatown ceased to exist in this area. … The families that lived here during that time are still around and maintain archives of that time period and the original Chinatown here, and we've worked with those families to have those objects on display,” Lax Yamamoto said.
Meanwhile, Wyatt’s large-scale mural includes the face of a Chinese man, along with nine other people of different races, ethnicities and ages; a nod to the diversity of the city since its founding in the late 1700s.
There are also stops to see new art installed for the World Cup.
There are three tours left in the series but the RSVPs have reached their maximum; however, Lax Yamamoto said Metro will decide whether to continue them based on what people have thought about the tours.
Meanwhile, Union Station is set to swell with people in the next couple of months as L.A. hosts World Cup games. The station is the site of an official FIFA-sponsored Fan Zone from June 25-28.
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England is the birthplace of soccer..... but the last time the team won the World Cup was 1966. Undeterred, England fans turn up every four years with hope in their hearts, says LAist Senior Editor Suzanne Levy, who grew up in the U.K.
Why now: As all eyes look to the Americas, English fans are beginning another bruising round of matches. Could this year be the one that brings the trophy home?
Why it matters: Because Levy would like England to win the cup just once before her time on Earth expires. Just once.
When I first came to the states many years ago, if I’d mentioned Arsenal, people would have thought I was referring to the U.S. military or something. But all that has changed. You can now watch U.K. premier league games in sports bars, most kids play soccer, and Ted Lasso is must-watch TV.
To which I say — welcome. We English are proud of the fact that soccer began with us more than 150 years ago. And every World Cup, we think, surely this will be the year that the trophy returns home — the year that we’ll win!
I mean it did happen … once… back in 1966. It’s such a long time ago the game was televised in black and white and shillings were still being used. My mother was nine months pregnant with my brother, and got so excited jumping up and down she went into labor and had him the next day. World Cup Willie they called him. Actually his name is David, but never mind.
Since then, every four years everyone in the U.K. watches the games with bated breath. And then something stupid will happen, and we’ll lose, like that time in 1998 when David Beckham (who played for England before he came to L.A. Galaxy) lost his temper and was sent off, and we’ll sit there, gloomy and despondent. I know because I was there in my friend’s living room in London, gloomy and despondent, thinking just once, just once, maybe could we please have a win?
The last World Cup, I went to Ye Olde Kings Head in Santa Monica to watch England play. At 7 a.m. it was full of people already on their third pint of beer. And when the team got through to the next round, the gentle men of England ran outside the pub, whipped off their shirts and started weaving through traffic, singing football chants and acting like hooligans. I really couldn’t decide if I was embarrassed or if it felt like home.
Anyway, this time, since I’m now an American citizen, it’s in my contract that I need to support Team USA. I’m a dual citizen, though, so I’ll also be cheering for England. If by any chance Team USA and England play each other, my two selves will be watching, with a cup of tea in one hand, and a cold brewski in the other, and the polarities will explode, or something. But what will probably happen is that both teams will be eclipsed by Brazil or France playing the beautiful game… beautifully. Cheers.
