Birthright Citizenship Isn’t Going Away Just Because Trump Said So

I had forgotten how a whirlwind week in a Trump presidential term ages a writer like dog years. One moment, Biden is pardoning his family. The next, Trump is unilaterally decreeing an end to birthright citizenship — only to have a Reagan-appointed judge in Washington, the Honorable John Coughenour, observe: “I’ve been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.”

Is Judge Coughenour right? Probably, at least insofar as President Trump has tried unilaterally, by executive order, to change a provision of the Constitution that many solid scholars believe would require a constitutional amendment. That said, it’s complicated. That’s why I so appreciated Jim Geraghty’s excellent Morning Jolt this week on birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment (and I commend to everyone the related discussion Jim, Charles C. W. Cooke, Noah Rothman, and Rich Lowry had on this week’s episode of The Editors).

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

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I had forgotten how a whirlwind week in a Trump presidential term ages a writer like dog years. One moment, Biden is pardoning his family. The next, Trump is unilaterally decreeing an end to birthright citizenship — only to have a Reagan-appointed judge in Washington, the Honorable John Coughenour, observe: “I’ve been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.”

Is Judge Coughenour right? Probably, at least insofar as President Trump has tried unilaterally, by executive order, to change a provision of the Constitution that many solid scholars believe would require a constitutional amendment. That said, it’s complicated. That’s why I so appreciated Jim Geraghty’s excellent Morning Jolt this week on birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment (and I commend to everyone the related discussion Jim, Charles C. W. Cooke, Noah Rothman, and Rich Lowry had on this week’s episode of The Editors).

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.