A chilling estate sale, today

[Cirsium]

112. Birthright citizenship

Trump’s birthright citizenship proposal, explained by a law professor

President Donald Trump’s proposal to end birthright citizenship — a policy that guarantees that any child born on US soil has guaranteed American citizenship regardless of the status of their parents — would deny citizenship to children born to undocumented migrants. The move has a political and a legal logic; the first is familiar and pernicious, the second novel and flawed.

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I hope it goes without saying that this result is highly objectionable, since it would lead to the deprivation of birthright citizenship as a consequence of one’s parents’ origins. Yet I think it follows logically and directly from Trump’s position. It is an implication that can be denied only by rejecting the irrevocably tainted project of taking away the birthright citizenship based on the alleged crimes of a parent.

Those who are troubled by the idea of repudiating the 14th Amendment should be alert to the risk that White House lawyers will not be bothered by the Constitution’s vesting of the power to decide citizenship rules in Congress, and will gin-up a theory about why a statute already authorizes the president to do this.

We should be cautious, take this threat to basic American values seriously, and be prepared to fight back when reacting to Trump’s birthright citizenship proposal.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/31/18047896/trump-supreme-court-birthright-citizenship

Trump promises to end birthright citizenship