What Will the Supreme Court Decide about Birthright Citizenship?

Nations are stronger when they have the right to determine who becomes a citizen and who does not, and strong nations provide a safe harbor for states, communities, and families. In my opinion, the Fourteenth Amendment has been misinterpreted for too long. The wrong interpretation promises citizenship to almost every baby born on American soil. How can the United States maintain its sovereignty when any pregnant woman can cross into the nation illegally, give birth to her baby, and claim citizenship rights for that baby?

The Fourteenth Amendment begins, “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.” There is an important phrase in that statement: “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” A subject belongs to a certain ruler. An illegal alien mother is subject to the country from which she came – not the nation that she entered illegally. This is my assertion as well as that of President Donald Trump. Kelsey Dallas posted an article on this topic at The Deseret News.

President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship [was]  in front of the Supreme Court on Thursday, but the discussion may have more to do with the judicial system than with parents and kids.

Although several lawsuits over the legality of the order are ongoing, the Supreme Court was specifically asked to address the use of universal injunctions, a type of ruling that puts a challenged policy on hold nationwide.

The Trump administration wants the court to limit the effect of their lower-court losses in birthright citizenship cases by ruling that judges can only block an order with respect to the people or regions involved.

But the states, cities, pregnant women and immigrants’ rights groups challenging Turmp’s order believe universal injunctions were properly used in their cases. Chaos would follow if the order took effect in some states while being on hold in others, they say.

The justices seem to believe the conflict would benefit from their input sooner rather than later, since they adjusted the court’s spring calendar in order to hear the birthright citizenship case….

Most legal scholars interpret the Fourteenth Amendment to mean that children born to immigrants living in the country illegally or foreign visitors in the U.S. are U.S. citizens, despite the fact that their parents are not. [This interpretation does not make sense. How can an illegal alien mother have a baby that is a citizen?]

Trump challenged that interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment in an executive order released on Jan. 20, the day he returned to the White House for his second term.

The order says that babies born to parents who are unlawfully in the U.S. or in the U.S. on a temporary visa should not be considered “subject to the jurisdiction” of the country and, therefore, not granted automatic citizenship.

Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship is the subject of several lawsuits….

The main question in front of the court is … whether it was proper for the lower courts to put universal injunctions in place.

The court [could have] also consider[ed] a separate question raised in the Trump administration’s briefs: whether the states involved in the case actually have standing to sue to block the order’s implementation.

Last but not least, the Supreme Court could [have] decide[d] to dig into the question of whether or not the order violates the Fourteenth Amendment, which all parties in the case briefly addressed in their filings.

Since arguments were scheduled to “begin at 8 a.m. MDT on Thursday,” the hearing will be over by the time that this essay posts to my blog. Therefore, we may have a better idea of how the justices were thinking about the matter and what they actually asked. However, we will not know their final decision until early July.

Nevertheless, I still maintain that nations must have the power to decide who and who will not be citizens. It is good that the Trump administration is forcing this issue to go to the Supreme Court. Americans deserve to have their Supreme Court look seriously at the issue, particularly the intentions of those who wrote and passed the Fourteenth Amendment.