I have a somewhat romantic attachment to it. I also tend to agree with Krikorian’s arguments about it as a policy. I don’t know enough about the history to render a judgment on the constitutional question. The question, I think, would be what the generally prevailing understanding of that bit about jurisdiction was at the time of ratification. The fact that the authors of the amendment thought it excluded birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants is powerful, but not dispositive, evidence on that question.
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About the Author
Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
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