{"id":362,"date":"2026-07-09T19:13:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T19:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=362"},"modified":"2026-07-09T19:13:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T19:13:43","slug":"at-scotusblogs-term-in-review-event-national-legal-director-of-the-aclu-cecillia-wang-speaks-about-arguing-birthright-citizenship-the-term-in-general-and-whats-next-on-the-organiz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=362","title":{"rendered":"At SCOTUSblog\u2019s term-in-review event, National Legal Director of the ACLU Cecillia Wang speaks about arguing birthright citizenship, the term in general, and what\u2019s next on the organization\u2019s docket"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cecillia Wang, the national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, called her April 1 argument in Trump v. Barbara<\/em>, the challenge to President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order seeking to end the guarantee of U.S. citizenship to virtually everyone born in this country, the \u201cmost high-stakes and stressful task of my professional life.\u201d On a scale of 1 to 10, she joked, her level of nervousness was \u201c99.\u201d But her nerves melted away, she said, once the argument began.<\/p>\n

Read more Justice shopping on the emergency docket?<\/a><\/p>\n

Wang\u2019s work (and eventual victory) in Barbara<\/em> was one of the topics that she touched on during a wide-ranging discussion on Wednesday afternoon with Zachary Shemtob, the executive editor of SCOTUSblog, at SCOTUSblog\u2019s term-in-review event, \u201cExecutive Power and its Limits.\u201d The event, which was sponsored by the ACLU and co-hosted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center, also featured a discussion of birthright citizenship by historian Martha Jones, whose scholarship was cited by Chief Justice John Roberts in his in Barbara<\/em>, and a live taping of the Advisory Opinions podcast, featuring Sarah Isgur, David French, Akhil Amar, and David Lat.<\/p>\n

Before joining the ACLU, Wang said, she served as (among other things) a federal public defender in New York \u2013 an experience that she described as \u201cincredibly formative.\u201d Although the trial work that she did in that job is different from the appellate work that she does today, she explained, she was standing in front of juries \u201cday in, day out.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Wang assumed her current job as the ACLU\u2019s national legal director in 2024, she noted, the Supreme Court\u2019s October Term 2024 had been the group\u2019s \u201cbusiest term ever.\u201d But the following term, OT2025, \u201ctopped that,\u201d she said, with five cases on the merits.<\/p>\n

Those five cases included the voting rights case Louisiana v. Callais<\/em>, which she described as a \u201cterrible loss,\u201d and the gun rights case United States v. Hemani<\/em>, in which the court agreed unanimously that the government could not prosecute a Texas man who uses marijuana a few times a week under a federal law that makes it a crime for an \u201cunlawful user\u201d of drugs to have a gun.<\/p>\n

Wang characterized the ACLU\u2019s participation in Hemani<\/em> as \u201csomewhat controversial internally and among ACLU members.\u201d Erin Murphy, who has strong credentials in both conservative and gun-rights circles, ultimately argued the case, prompting Wang to joke that \u201cwhen you see Erin Murphy teaming up with the ACLU,\u201d it will lead to a 9-0 victory. Wang stressed that although it might seem unusual to see the ACLU defending gun rights, it \u201cis important to me that rights\u201d \u2013 including gun rights \u2013 \u201cnot be taken away\u201d unfairly. And that was a possibility under the government\u2019s interpretation of the law at the center of Hemani<\/em>, she said.<\/p>\n

Read more Who is the Supreme Court\u2019s most \u201cideological\u201d justice? And does that question even make sense?<\/a><\/p>\n

Turning to Barbara<\/em>, Wang told the audience that she did seven practice arguments \u2013 known as \u201cmoot courts\u201d \u2013 before the real thing on April 1. As a result, she felt very prepared, although the argument itself \u201cstayed very high-level,\u201d which she described as a \u201csurprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shemtob inquired about another surprise: the decision by Trump to attend the oral argument, becoming the first sitting president to do so. Wang emphasized that \u201cit didn\u2019t matter to me,\u201d because Trump\u2019s presence in the courtroom \u201chad nothing to do with me\u201d but \u201ceverything to do with his agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wang described the vote in the case \u2013 5-4 on whether Trump\u2019s executive order violates the Constitution \u2013 as a \u201cclose call,\u201d but she added that \u201cat the end of the day, a win is a win.\u201d Quoting conservative law professor John Yoo, she said that \u201cthis should decide the issue for the next 100 years.\u201d If opponents of birthright citizenship want to try to amend the Constitution in response to the court\u2019s ruling, she said, \u201cgood luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about cases on the horizon for the ACLU, Wang told the audience that the group is involved in challenges to a Texas law requiring each public school classroom in the state to post the King James version of the Ten Commandments. There are two different cases, she explained: one brought before the state enforced the law, and one brought after it implemented the law. She indicated that she was hopeful about their likelihood of success, calling the idea that the state can require classrooms to include a display of a sectarian religious text \u201ca bridge too far\u201d for the Roberts court.<\/p>\n

Wang concluded with advice to lawyers and law students interested in careers in impact litigation, telling them that there is \u201cno better time to do this work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trump wants court to rehear birthright citizenship case<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cecillia Wang, the national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, called her April 1 argument in Trump v. Barbara, the challenge to President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order seeking to end the guarantee of U.S. citizenship to virtually everyone born in this country, the \u201cmost high-stakes and stressful task of my professional life.\u201d On […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scotusblog-events"],"yoast_head":"\nAt SCOTUSblog\u2019s term-in-review event, National Legal Director of the ACLU Cecillia Wang speaks about arguing birthright citizenship, the term in general, and what\u2019s next on the organization\u2019s docket - American Service Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=362\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"At SCOTUSblog\u2019s term-in-review event, National Legal Director of the ACLU Cecillia Wang speaks about arguing birthright citizenship, the term in general, and what\u2019s next on the organization\u2019s docket - American Service Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cecillia Wang, the national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, called her April 1 argument in Trump v. 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