Right-wingers rage against Gorsuch over fear he’s 'prepping' them for huge loss

Right-wingers this week raged at new comments from Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, worried that he might be "prepping" them for an impending loss on President Donald Trump's long-shot bid to end birthright citizenship.

The comments from Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, originated from an interview with the libertarian publication, Reason Magazine, in which he described the U.S. as a "creedal" nation, not one founded on a shared religion or culture. This comes as the court is hearing arguments to the contrary from the Trump administration, which is attempting to alter birthright citizenship laws to exclude the children of undocumented immigrants.

"The Declaration of Independence had three great ideas in it: that all of us are equal; that each of us has inalienable rights given to us by God, not government; and that we have the right to rule ourselves," Gorsuch said. "Our nation is not founded on a religion. It’s not based on a common culture even, or heritage. It’s based on those ideas. We’re a creedal nation.”

As a clip of this quote began to circulate on X, a few conservatives shared heated reactions to Gorsuch's argument, worrying that it was a prelude for the court shutting down Trump's war on birthright citizenship.

"Amazing how wrong Gorsuch is here," Steve Cortes, a former adviser to Trump and Vice President JD Vance, wrote in a post. "We are clearly a Christian nation founded on the principles of Western Civilization, with the culture and mores of Europe. Seems like he’s 'prepping us for an absurd Birthright Citizenship ruling?"

"Concerning to hear this from Justice Gorsuch, and it’s completely divorced from our founding," Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, wrote in another post responding to Cortes. "If we swapped out Americans with the population of another country, we would no longer be America. Being American is more than a title on paper."

Will Tanner, co-founder of a right-wing publication, claimed that the "Founding Fathers" would disagree with Gorsuch, but only cited a quote from one of them, the first SCOTUS Chief Justice John Jay, to argue his point.

"If we're a creedal nation, show me the required creed and explain to me the consequences for someone who refuses to follow it," Timothy Nerozzi, a conservative reporter, added in his own post.

Despite this consternation from conservatives, Trump's bid has always been considered unlikely to survive the Supreme Court, even one that has made notable efforts to side with him often. Given that birthright citizenship, the notion that anyone born on American soil is automatically an American citizen, is enshrined in U.S. law by the 14th Amendment in plain language, observers have argued that Trump's crusade against it is blatantly and unavoidably unconstitutional.