With his typical attention to detail, President Trump has opened up a Supreme Court can of worms by questioning the jurisprudence that the Fourteenth Amendment has been responsible for producing for too long. As depicted with this recent rash of nationwide injunctions, it’s apparent that lower courts have joined up with the top court’s current free-wheeling authority. Therefore, expectations are high for Trump’s “birthright” challenge!
First to consider is the unanswerable question: just what advantage is there for America in granting citizenship based on illegal entry? To reward the lawbreaker is to limit the usefulness of border security! More importantly, the amendment itself eliminates any possibility of this becoming an issue with its requirement, “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Endorsing this absurd system of rewarding the non-citizen lawbreaker has only encouraged more of the same. This is confirmed by the many expectant mothers booking air travel before delivery, many of whom are coming from Red China.
What got lost is that the purpose of this amendment was to ensure the equal rights and protections of all the recently freed slaves following the Civil War. This was solely intended and directed to the present-day generations, who would undergo that transitional period. So, why was there a need for an amendment at all? After a particular time, at most a generation, those newly gained freedoms would become a normal part of everyday life. All that was required was a time-based federal regulation!
Additionally, the Thirteenth Amendment’s previous guarantee of freedom was embodied in its words, “Neither slavery nor indentured servitude…shall exist within the United States.” Such wordage was and is clear to understand. As far as the Fourteenth Amendment’s “due process” assurances, they too were merely a reiteration of a right detailed in the Fifth Amendment of our Bill of Rights. Again, in clear language, the Fifth Amendment capably stated, “No person shall be…deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…”
It appears that the birthright controversy surrounding the Fourteenth Amendment originated in 1898, when the Supreme Court ruled in the Wong Kim Ark case that a child born to parents who were legal residents but not American citizens would be granted citizenship by the Court. As would be expected, that Court’s unfounded generosity opened the illegal immigration door.
American citizenship is based upon parents, not location. A child born to American parents abroad is an American citizen. If not, who would venture overseas during pregnancy? Remember, John McCain was born in Panama to two American parents. The Constitution defines the proper citizenship of the President as being a “natural born citizen,” that of two American parents. Although a measure meant to ensure the utmost of Presidential loyalty, today’s rigid adherence has recently come into question.
If or when Trump’s birthright challenge fails, it’ll be from continuing the same errant judicial logic, only this time with a dash of stubbornness from being faced with the obvious. If this should happen, it’ll be more than the proper ruling that will be required; that is if our Blessed America is still worth our effort!
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