The Illegal News with Sarah Longwell S2 Ep153: Reporters Now Need ESCORTS to Do Their Jobs at the Pentagon (w/ Elliot Williams)
Apr 1, 2026
Elliot Williams, lawyer and CNN legal analyst who wrote Five Bullets, breaks down high-stakes legal fights shaping the republic. He covers challenges to birthright citizenship, a controversial no-bond immigration detention policy, and the Pentagon’s new rules restricting press access. They also probe attempts to recast January 6 and how litigation can reshape public memory.
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Overturning Birthright Citizenship Would Break Originalist Logic
- If the Supreme Court wanted to overturn birthright citizenship it would need to abandon originalist text-based reading or insist modern immigration realities permit a different interpretation.
- Williams argues conservatives who claim originalism would have to 'strain and squint' to justify reversing two centuries of consistent rulings.
Change Citizenship Through The Constitutional Process
- Use the constitutional amendment process if policymakers truly want to change citizenship rules rather than relying on unilateral executive action.
- Williams emphasizes the framers intentionally made amendment difficult (two-thirds Congress, three-quarters states) but that is the legitimate path.
Detention Policy Relies On A Stretch Of 'Applicant For Admission' Doctrine
- The administration’s policy to detain undocumented immigrants without bond reframes longstanding 'applicant for admission' doctrine to include people already in the U.S.
- Williams says hundreds of trial judges have rejected that reinterpretation as impractical and inconsistent with prior practice.
