Born in the USA

To the editor:

On June 30, a 6-3 majority of Supreme Court Justices ended a 17-month farce, rejecting Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14160 ending birthright citizenship. The decision was a no-brainer, anyone with a 3rd grade education and a rudimentary understanding of the English language could have told Trump his E.O. was unconstitutional.

The decision should have been unanimous.

Yet, Trump wasted the court’s time believing the 14th Amendment had a loophole – specifically, the clause “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” - falsely claiming that children born in the U.S. to non-citizens fell under the jurisdiction of their parents’ native nations.  Back in April, I questioned Trump’s claim noting native-born children are required to abide by local, state and federal laws – attend school, obtain working papers, pay taxes, etc. 

The SCOTUS majority arrived at the same conclusion:

“The ordinary legal meaning of the text of the Clause thus neatly captures the common law rule, with its broad reach and narrow exceptions. The same groups included (and excluded) by jus soli were included (and excluded) by the conventional understanding of jurisdiction. Excluded by both were the children of foreign ministers and members of 19th century Indian tribes over whom the United States had ceded a part of its territorial jurisdiction … No such intersovereign concerns apply to children born of parents unlawfully or temporarily present in the United States …Those children are thus subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. They satisfy both elements of the Citizenship Clause: they are 'born . . . in the United States' and 'subject to the jurisdiction thereof.' Under the Constitution, they are citizens at birth.”

On Truth Social, Trump demanded Congress end birthright citizenship “TODAY” through legislation.  Wrong again Donald, no legislation can countermand the U.S. Constitution, the supreme law of the land.

Joseph Cannisi