Trump Thinks He Can Defy the Supremes on Birthright Citizenship

The Fourteenth Amendment’s citizenship clause says that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” For the last 150 years, the overwhelming judicial and scholarly consensus has been that anyone born on U.S. soil is a U.S. citizen, except for the children of foreign diplomats and other moribund exceptions. The Supreme Court confirmed this interpretation in the 1898 case United States v. Wong Kim Ark.

Trump issued an executive order last January that purported not to recognize the citizenship of children born on U.S. soil to temporary visa holders and/or undoblockented immigrants. In Trump v. Barbara, the Supreme Court struck down the executive order as unconstitutional. The targeted children “satisfy both elements of the Citizenship Clause: they are ‘born … in the United States’ and ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof,’” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court. “Under the Constitution, they are citizens at birth.”

Every person currently living inside the United States falls into one of four categories. They are either a U.S. citizen by birth or naturalization, a lawful permanent resident (better known as a green card holder), they’ve gained entry with a temporary visa, or they unlawfully entered the U.S. Nobody disputes that the citizenship clause applies to the children of U.S. citizens. The Supreme Court ruled that the citizenship clause covers the last two groups, except for a few narrow exceptions: If the clause covers the children of temporary visa holders, it must logically cover the children of permanent residents, as well. “Permanent” is just a lifelong version of “temporary,” after all.