Apr 7, 2026
1 min
Professor of Constitutional Law James Sample and Director of the Law School’s Deportation Defense Clinic Alexander Holtzman at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law were interviewed by Newsday for a report on President Donald Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship for hundreds of thousands of children of parents here illegally or temporarily.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments from Trump administration lawyers that the Citizenship Clause of the U.S. Constitution was never intended to grant citizenship universally to everyone born in the country.
Professor Sample said the administration’s case lacked merit. The clearest precedent, he said, was an 1898 Supreme Court case, United States v. Wong Kim Ark.
He said, “That established clearly that, in the Supreme Court’s view, the language of the 14th Amendment meant that a child born in the United States, including to immigrants, whether documented or not, was a citizen.” He also added that a ruling that overturned this precedent would mark a fundamental change to the American identity.
“The notion of birthright citizenship is one of the things that distinguishes us from other countries where citizenship is often a function of lineage,” he said.
Professor Holtzman told Newsday that the case was creating anxiety for people who could be negatively affected by a court ruling, which could come as early as this summer.
“I’ve had clients who’ve asked me, ‘Are my children safe, or who are pregnant and wonder if their children will be safe.”
Professor Sample regularly comments on voting rights and constitutional issues in leading media outlets.
1 min
Alan Singer, professor emeritus of learning, teaching, and technology, appears in a Newsday article about how teachers are approaching the 25th anniversary of 9/11 in their classrooms. “For the generation that lived through 9/11, it was a day that will live in infamy,” he said. “But for [younger] people, it may not. So the question then becomes, what do we want kids to learn about 9/11?”
1 min
After an EF1 tornado touched down in Atlantic Beach on August 20, Dr. Jase Bernhardt, associate professor of geology, environment, and sustainability, talked to Newsday about this rare occurrence. Some parts of the country – particularly in the central United States – are more likely to have the atmospheric conditions required to form a tornado. One key condition these cyclones require is “a clashing of contrasting air masses,” said Bernhardt. “We just don’t have the ingredients that are necessary. The water around the island tends to moderate the climate a bit.”
1 min
Lawrence Levy, associate vice president and executive dean of Hofstra University’s National Center for Suburban Studies, was interviewed by Newsday about the decline in ICE arrests on Long Island. This stands in contrast to the rest of the country where nearly 50,000 people were arrested in July, the highest number since President Donald Trump’s second term. Levy said the trend, if the data is accurate, suggests that organized opposition to aggressive immigration enforcement by Latino and non-Latino residents and organizations may be having an impact.
Check out some other posts from Hofstra University
1 min
Alan Singer, professor emeritus of learning, teaching, and technology, appears in a Newsday article about how teachers are approaching the 25th anniversary of 9/11 in their classrooms. “For the generation that lived through 9/11, it was a day that will live in infamy,” he said. “But for [younger] people, it may not. So the question then becomes, what do we want kids to learn about 9/11?”
1 min
After an EF1 tornado touched down in Atlantic Beach on August 20, Dr. Jase Bernhardt, associate professor of geology, environment, and sustainability, talked to Newsday about this rare occurrence. Some parts of the country – particularly in the central United States – are more likely to have the atmospheric conditions required to form a tornado. One key condition these cyclones require is “a clashing of contrasting air masses,” said Bernhardt. “We just don’t have the ingredients that are necessary. The water around the island tends to moderate the climate a bit.”
1 min
Lawrence Levy, associate vice president and executive dean of Hofstra University’s National Center for Suburban Studies, was interviewed by Newsday about the decline in ICE arrests on Long Island. This stands in contrast to the rest of the country where nearly 50,000 people were arrested in July, the highest number since President Donald Trump’s second term. Levy said the trend, if the data is accurate, suggests that organized opposition to aggressive immigration enforcement by Latino and non-Latino residents and organizations may be having an impact.
