WASHINGTON, DC – Following oral arguments on birthright citizenship at the Supreme Court, California Attorney General Rob Bonta took to TV to discuss the case after he left the courtroom.

“The federal government came out worse for wear,” AG Bonta told MS NOW’s Chris Jansing. “And in my opinion, there was a lot of healthy skepticism and doubt about the position that the Trump administration was taking here, essentially trying to expand the exceptions in the Constitution and rewrite the Constitution, of course can’t be rewritten by an executive order or by Congress for that matter.”

Key highlights from MS NOW:

• “I definitely heard a majority of the justices that will uphold birthright citizenship as we’ve argued it should be upheld with minimal closed exceptions and striking down the executive order […] a win would be a win here to affirm the power and potency of the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment and uphold birthright citizenship.”

• “Whatever it comes down to, I think it will be positive for our Constitution, for our democracy, for our notion of American citizenship. And I believe there will be a majority that strikes down the executive order and upholds birthright citizenship.”

• “We created a rule that if you’re born in the United States, you’re a citizen of the United States, period, full stop, with minimal limited exceptions. And that means that you are part of our future. You are part of making us stronger, making us better, participating in our democracy, being an engaged citizen, voting and serving on juries and running for office and speaking up and speaking out to make us better and more fair and more just as we go forward. So all that would be lost.”

• “[Trump] literally raised his hand and swore to uphold the law in the U.S. Constitution and went into another room and signed an executive order that violated the Constitution, tried to rewrite the U.S. Constitution with a stroke of a pen in an executive order. He cannot do that.”

• “[Trump is] trying to advance his cruel and inhumane agenda, immigration agenda, which is attacking immigrants in so many different ways […] And what they’re really attacking is the U.S. Constitution.”

Prior to oral arguments, AG Bonta had sat down with CBS’s Melissa Quinn to talk through the severity of the consequences if SCOTUS ruled in favor of the Trump administration.

Key highlights from CBS: 

•  “‘One of the reasons behind birthright citizenship is to bring people who are born in America into the American democratic fold, to make them citizens, to make them eligible to vote and decide on the future of our state, to make them be eligible to serve on a jury and participate in that very democratic function of serving on a jury of your peers, to allow them to run for office potentially, to have them be citizens engaged in our democracy,’ California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. ‘If that all gets taken away, that sort of social compact that’s enshrined in the U.S. Constitution gets taken away.’”

• “Bonta estimated that Mr. Trump’s policy would deny citizenship to between 20,000 and 24,000 babies born in California each year and render them ineligible for federally funded programs. As a result, states would lose out on federal dollars from programs like Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program.”

•  “‘There’s all sorts of costs that will be pushed down to the states by this decision if it’s upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court,’ [Bonta] said.”

###