Democracy Now! Tuesday, March 31, 2026

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on April 1st in a landmark case challenging President Trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship—a move that would strip U.S. citizenship from children born to undocumented parents. The ACLU, represented by attorney Cecilia Wang and her colleague Cody Woffse, argues the policy violates the 14th Amendment and echoes the racist, exclusionary ideologies of the Dred Scott decision. The case is framed not just as a legal battle but as a fight for the soul of American democracy, with historical parallels to the 1898 Wong Kim Ark ruling that affirmed birthright citizenship for Chinese-Americans. Meanwhile, in Cuba, a Russian oil tanker has breached the U.S. blockade, delivering 700,000 barrels of crude—yet the White House insists policy hasn't changed. Journalist Liz Oliva Fernandez in Havana and scholar William Leogrand expose the humanitarian crisis caused by decades of sanctions, with infant mortality rising to 10 per 1,000 and life expectancy declining. As the U.S.-Israel war in Iran enters its 32nd day, the Pentagon’s AI-driven Project Maven is under scrutiny after a strike on an Iranian girls' school killed over 170 people. Journalist Katrina Manson reveals how AI systems like Maven, initially backed by Google and now run by Palantir, are accelerating warfare—but at the cost of civilian lives, with algorithms still struggling to distinguish between combatants and children.