Birthright Citizenship and the US Constitution
How to overturn our Constitution with the stroke of a pen
Section one of the fourteenth amendment to the US Constitution opens with this sentence. "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." Today, we call this birthright citizenship.
One of President Trump’s day-one executive orders tries to usurp our constitution to deny birthright citizenship. Read the order for yourself.
Trump's justification is nonsense and will never survive any court challenge in any court that respects our constitution. And, sure enough, four days later, on Thursday, January 23, 2025, after 22 states filed a lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour in Seattle granted a temporary restraining order.
From the bench, Judge Coughenour said that in his 40 years as a judge, he had never seen something so blatantly unconstitutional. “I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar could state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order,” the judge told the Trump administration’s attorney. “It boggles my mind.”
But this ruling, and rulings from other lawsuits challenging the Trump order, are just the warmup act. The Supreme Court will decide this, which means all that stands between our democracy and tossing our constitution into the dumpster are nine Supreme Court justices. Because if nobody overturns this order, that will encourage Trump to write more orders overturning other inconvenient Constitutional clauses. Poof. Overturn our constitution with a presidential executive order. So much for checks and balances.
And here’s the scary part. Trump enjoys a Supreme Court supermajority. Which should not matter if Supreme Court justices keep their oath to support and defend the constitution. They should rule 9-0 against it, or even better, just let the inevitable appeals court denials stand and not even bother with more arguments.
But consider this court’s well-documented ethical problems with at least two justices accepting lavish vacations paid for by billionaires.
Connect the dots. Imagine a billionaire who wants special access to the President of the United States. What's the ROI from investing a few $million to influence a Supreme Court justice opinion? Especially the justices you've already hooked?
For you who say you don't like Trump but voted for him because you like his policies, you're getting exactly what you voted for.
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