TOI correspondent from Washington: As the US Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments on Wednesday morning in the closely watched birthright citizenship case Trump v. Barbara, one of the most influential figures shaping the legal battlefield is also among its least publicly known or understood: Indian-American attorney Smita Ghosh, Senior Appellate Counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center.
Operating largely outside the glare of television cameras and political theater, Ghosh has emerged as a central intellectual architect behind the defense of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, bringing to bear a rare combination of appellate advocacy and deep historical scholarship. Her work—meticulous, text-driven, and rooted in early American legal tradition—is expected to play a significant role in how the justices approach a case that could redefine the meaning of US citizenship.
