Trump’s Case Against Birthright Citizenship Is a Constitutional Loser
President Donald Trump’s executive order purporting to abolish birthright citizenship for millions of U.S.-born children is an insult to the text, history, and original public meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. On May 15, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a consolidated case arising from this pernicious presidential decree. So long as the Supreme Court’s self-professed “originalists” practice what they preach, the case will be a well-deserved defeat for Trump.
Drafted in 1866 and ratified in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment declares in its first section that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
The current legal debate over birthright citizenship centers on the meaning of the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction.” So, what does it mean?
According to Trump, a child who is born in the United States, but whose “mother was unlawfully present” and whose “father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident,” is not subject to U.S. jurisdiction and is therefore ineligible for birthright citizenship. Likewise, according to Trump, a child who is born in the U.S. but whose “mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa),” and whose “father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident,” is also ineligible.
But illegal immigrants and temporary lawful visitors are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States as that phrase was originally understood when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted.
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Article from Reason.com
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