The Supreme Court has been busy. Let us take a look at the two major ruling released yesterday, especially the complete misread of what the XIV Amendment.
A Really Bad Ruling
According to the Daily Wire:
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday permanently blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to restrict birthright citizenship, dealing a significant blow to his immigration agenda and preventing a sweeping overhaul of who qualifies for U.S. citizenship.
In a landmark ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court held that children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.
“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land,’” Roberts wrote. “We keep that promise today.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred in part and dissented in part. He disagreed with the court’s holding that Trump’s executive order violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Instead, he argued that the order violated other federal statutes, saying only Congress can enact new exceptions to birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented.
Clarence Thomas wrote in his Dissent:
“The court today takes the extraordinary step of holding facially unconstitutional the President’s Order excluding from citizenship the children of foreign temporary visitors and illegal aliens. In doing so, the court adds to the sad history of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed and understood to secure equal rights for the freed blacks but has instead been repurposed for political projects that the Reconstruction Congress did not support.”
Thomas argued that the 14th Amendment was designed to apply to freed slaves and their children, who owed no allegiances to foreign countries.
“The same could not be said for the children of foreign temporary visitors. Foreign temporary visitors were attached to their home country, lacked similar bonds to this country, and would not be called upon in time of war. Americans, consistent with their settler ethos, believed that citizens were the people who called a place home.”
“I am not sure that today’s opinion will stand the test of time. The Citizenship Clause ‘added greatly to the dignity and glory of American citizenship. Today’s opinion devalues that citizenship.”
Samuel Alito also added to the dissent:
“As interpreted by the court today, the Fourteenth Amendment confers citizenship on virtually everyone who happens to be born in this country, including the children of ‘birth tourists,’ women who come here solely for the purpose of giving birth to a child and then promptly return home. Careful analysis of the text of the Fourteenth Amendment and the process that led to its adoption shows that it does not degrade the concept of United States citizenship in this way. Instead, the Fourteenth Amendment confers citizenship on only those children who, at birth, owe allegiance solely to this country.
“The court’s interpretation preserves a powerful incentive to enter or remain in this country illegally. Immigrants naturally prefer affluent countries where economic opportunities are available. Other than Canada, the United States will be the only affluent nation where birth alone is enough to establish citizenship.”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/supreme-court-rules-against-trump-in-birthright-citizenship-case
https://www.dailywire.com/news/clarence-thomas-torches-scotus-decision-on-birthright-citizenship
Response From the Right
The Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship decision is wrong, dangerous, and disastrous for American sovereignty and the American people. If we can’t fix it with ordinary legislation, then we must do what the Constitution commands in moments of national crisis: We must amend the Constitution and restore American citizenship. We must again put “We the People” first. The Supreme Court’s decision constitutionalizing unlimited birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens and temporarily present aliens is wrong—and disastrous for our sovereignty and the future of our republic. The decision exposes America to grave national security risks and threatens to erode the integrity of the core of American self-government: citizenship. Citizenship is more than paperwork issued by the government. It is more than a bureaucratic label that grants access to government programs. Citizenship is the covenantal bond between a nation and its people.
Douglas Mackey, who was targeted by the Biden administration for a meme tweeted:
The Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship decision is a bigger disaster than expected. Roberts and Barrett have completely sold out our birthright. The Court has ruled that an Act of Congress CANNOT overturn Birthright Citizenship, only a Constitutional Amendment. Since it’s impossible to seal off the borders perfectly and indefinitely, this ruling dissolves the United States as we know it. It’s the beginning of the end of the Republic unless and until we get a new Supreme Court to overturn this disastrous decision (like Roe v. Wade was eventually overturned).
Finally, the best for last, Donald Trump congratulated Xi Jinping:
https://www.dailywire.com/news/legal-abomination-conservatives-react-to-scotus-birthright-citizenship-ruling
Here’s What I Think
Some things:
- This is a complete disaster for the Supreme Court.
- It is a complete misreading of the XIV Amendment.
- Context matters. The writers of the XIV Amendment stated that aliens were not automatically citizens. Read the statement from above.
- The Court stated that the legal status of the parents is irrelevant. That’s horse pucky. Diplomats who have a child while in the United States determine whether that kid is a citizen.
- Entering the United States is illegal and shows that the do not regard themselves a “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States.
- Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito were right:
- This devalues citizenship.
- This opens the country to foreign actors that have the strategy of undermining the country through elections and politics.
- It paves the way for birth tourism
- Justice Kavanaugh was also right and wrong.
- He was wrong in that the Constitution and the context were made very clear.
- He’s right that Congress can definitely make laws that better define the amendment.
- The question is would Congress make such a law.
- The ruling judges were wrong.
- They ignored what the words of the Constitution said.
- They completely ignored why the amendment was written.
- They are cowards.
There is good news though:
At Least They Got This One Right
According to the Daily Wire:
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that states have the constitutional power to ban men from women’s sports, dealing another blow to the transgender movement.
In a ruling authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh and joined by the other conservative justices, the Supreme Court held that Title IX allows schools to determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports teams based on biological sex. Liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson agreed with parts of the majority opinion and dissented on other parts.
Justice Kavanaugh wrote:
“They may determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports based on biological sex. The Constitution and Title IX do not require an overhaul of women’s and girls’ sports throughout America.”
Clarence Thomas was a little more bitter about having to weigh in on this:
“Men and boys with gender dysphoria are not women or girls, even if they believe that they are. Sex is an immutable ‘biological’ characteristic.
“[I]t is binary; and ‘man’ and ‘woman,’ ‘boy’ and ‘girl,’ are the terms that correspond to adults and children of each sex,” he stressed. “To use language to obscure reality—to show ‘indifference regarding the truth’— is to lie to the public and cease to treat our fellow citizens ‘as equal[s].’“
“A man does not have a legal right to compete against women just because he believes that he is a woman. The class of people who claim transgender status could more accurately be described as people who are experiencing ‘gender dysphoria,’ which is not a ‘discrete group.’”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/supreme-court-protects-womens-sports-in-landmark-ruling