Chris Truax: “Trump’s birthright citizenship order isn’t going anywhere”
Charter Member Chris Truax published an op-ed in The Hill, “Don’t worry about Trump’s birthright citizenship order — it’s not going anywhere.” He writes:
In the flurry of executive orders Donald Trump issued on his first day back in the White House, one stands out — his order outlawing birthright citizenship.
Trump is attempting to prevent the federal government from recognizing the U.S. citizenship of anyone born in the U.S. who didn’t have at least one parent who was either a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent resident at the time of birth …
Despite having been around for so long, the legal argument behind this idea isn’t very well developed. It ranges between the argument that the Supreme Court case U.S. v Wong Kim Ark, doesn’t actually say that all children (with a few minor exceptions) born in the U.S. are automatically citizens, and complaints that birthright citizenship is just a bad idea.
However, this is legal nonsense. You can argue that we ought to amend the Constitution to eliminate birthright citizenship, but the legal theory, such as it is, that birthright citizenship hasn’t been firmly established by the Supreme Court doesn’t pass the snicker test.