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Deadline passes for Trump to ask Supreme Court to reconsider birthright citizenship ruling

WASHINGTON (AP) — The deadline passed Tuesday for the Trump administration to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its rejection of the president’s birthright citizenship restrictions, with no new filing on the docket.

President Donald Trump vowed to seek a rehearing shortly after the opinion handed him a loss on a signature issue, but by Tuesday the 25-day window had elapsed with no new activity.

A petition would face long odds: The court has not agreed to rehear an argued case in more than 50 years.

The high court’s 6-3 decision in June struck down Trump’s executive order that would have denied automatic citizenship to children born in the United States whose parents are in the U.S. illegally or temporarily.

The Republican president’s restrictions on birthright citizenship had been blocked by several lower courts before reaching the justices, and they did not take effect anywhere in the U.S.

Still, three justices — Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas – would have upheld them. A fourth justice, Brett Kavanaugh, found the Constitution wouldn’t block the president’s plan, though he found it did violate a federal law.

A week after the decision came down, Trump said in a social media post he would “be asking for a Rehearing by the United States Supreme Court, IMMEDIATELY.”

The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

The last time the Supreme Court granted any petition to change an opinion was in 1965, and the last time it reversed a decision was almost a decade earlier, in a case from 1956, said Aaron-Andrew Bruhl, a law professor at William & Mary Law School.

The bar to grant a petition for rehearing is high. It would require at least one justice who ruled against Trump to change their mind and a majority of the court would have to agree, Bruhl said.

US-Iran conflict enters new phase as Saudi Arabia helps hit proxies and diplomacy stalls again

WASHINGTON (AP) — The stop-start fighting between the United States and Iran appears to have entered a new phase as Saudi Arabia has publicly joined military escalations against Tehran-backed proxies. At the same time, an already untenable diplomatic effort to end the war has faltered once again as mistrust deepens between the longtime adversaries. Despite several days of relative calm, both sides carried out military strikes in the last 24 hours that once again risk a return to all-out war — and further expansion in the region — while little is clear about what strategy, if any, American or Iranian officials have for a path forward. While President Donald Trump and his allies have spent recent days arguing that Iran is begging to return to the negotiating table, Iran’s deputy foreign minister said Tuesday that his country has made no requests to restart the diplomatic track in more than two weeks. Following a thwarted attack on the U.S. base in Jordan, Trump turned back to threats Wednesday even while sustaining the prospect of continued talks.
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