President Trump’s criticism of the civil rights issue came in the same social media post in which he criticized the high court for its ruling on emergency tariffs.
President Trump’s immigration policy includes denial of birthright citizenship
On his first day in office, President Trump issued an EO that effectively denied birthright citizenship. SCOTUS will have to decide whether it is legal.
WASHINGTON – After a landslide defeat at the Supreme Court on the tariff issue, President Donald Trump asked the high court to avoid making an “erroneous” ruling in a pending case in which the administration argued that not everyone born in the United States is automatically a citizen.
The 14th Amendment grants birthright citizenship to people born in the United States and has been interpreted for more than 100 years to apply to more than just the children of diplomats.
But Trump argued that the provision was aimed at the children of former slaves, not those temporarily in the country on visas or the children of immigrants without legal permission to enter the country. The justices have scheduled arguments in the case for April 1.
“This Supreme Court will find a way to the wrong conclusion, and that conclusion will once again make China and other countries happy and prosperous,” Trump said.
In addition to criticizing past decisions, President Trump shifted gears and lobbied for future decisions. His claim to birthright citizenship came in the same social media post in which he criticized the Supreme Court on February 20 for an unrelated ruling overturning his emergency tariffs. Both subjects are his top domestic priorities on the economy and immigration.
The Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868 after the Civil War.
The proposed amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside.”
The phrase “subject to its jurisdiction” has traditionally excluded citizenship for children born to foreign diplomats.
The Supreme Court’s 1898 decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark upheld the citizenship rights of a San Francisco-born man whose parents were Chinese citizens.
Lower courts have opposed President Trump’s policy proposal to suspend citizenship recognition for children born to temporary visitors and illegal immigrants. But the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court.
“The lower court’s decision invalidates a policy most important to the President and his administration, in a way that undermines border security,” Attorney General John Sauer said in the Justice Department’s appeal. “These decisions confer the privileges of American citizenship to hundreds of thousands of ineligible people without legal legitimacy.”
President Trump predicted the Supreme Court would rule that the 14th Amendment is not limited to children of slaves, despite citing the “exact timing” of its drafting and ratification after the Civil War.
“I want the Supreme Court to continue to make decisions that are very bad and harmful to the future of our country. I have a job to do,” Trump said.
