Senator Graham Says Trump Birthright Order ‘Good Chance’ of Passing Supreme Court
One of Donald Trump’s first orders of business upon taking office was an executive order on birthright citizenship.
I had stated as soon as the order was signed that it would be challenged in court, and it already has been.
However, after reading the entire order, I suggested that Trump may have hit the sweet spot on this order, and it just may hold up, and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) agrees.
Could Hold Up
After the order was signed, it was immediately halted after Judge John Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, issued a temporary restraining order against the executive order, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional.”
When I read Trump’s order, there are very specific qualifiers that I believe could be interpreted as still respecting the 14th Amendment in terms of birthright citizenship.
The 14th Amendment, Section 1, 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 wherein they reside.
“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Trump’s order specifically cites children of people in this country illegally, which is where the “subject to the jurisdiction thereof…” part of the amendment.
Graham believes this could stand up to the scrutiny of the Court, stating, “I think there’s a good chance. I introduced legislation to end birthright citizenship years ago.”
We know the three liberal justices will negate Trump’s order, which means that it would take at least two conservative justices to cross over to nullify the order and firmly establish precedent here.
I give Trump about a 10-20% chance of this holding up because I believe Chief Justice Roberts will side with the liberal side of the bench. And whenever Roberts crosses over, he usually brings at least one Trump justice with him.
Justice Gorsuch has a bit of a soft spot for this particular issue, and I also believe that Justice Barrett will likely cross over, so I will predict a 6-3 judgment against Trump on this.
But to be clear, I support the legislation because this is how illegals are circumventing the system. It is literally a business model for coyotes to smuggle in pregnant women so they can have their baby here to establish citizenship for their child, knowing they will eventually be permitted to stay here as well as caretakers for the child.
Trump has claimed that the United States is the “only” country that allows birthright citizenship, but he is wrong, as there are about three dozen countries that currently allow birthright citizenship for children born in the country.
