Idaho’s Attorney General circulated a political opinion piece on March 31, suggesting that babies born on US soil are not entitled to US citizenship if their parents are not lawfully residing in America at the time of birth. This is completely counter to the language of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, as well as a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court issued in 1898.
Labrador admitted as much in his opinion piece: “Automatic citizenship for anyone born on American soil, regardless of their parents’ legal status, has become so accepted that courts have treated it as settled law. Even I agreed with this interpretation for a while.” So, what could have changed Labrador’s mind? It was likely a royal edict, issued by that universally-recognized legal scholar, Donald J. Trump.
On January 20, 2025, Trump issued an executive order calling for an end to what is known as birthright citizenship. Almost immediately, Labrador snapped into line, claiming that he and the rest of us have all been wrong about our reading of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution all these many years. Labrador and 23 other Republican Attorneys General have asked the Supreme Court to overturn what has long been the well-established law of the United States.
The actual words of the Fourteenth Amendment are so clear that anyone with a basic understanding of English should be able to understand what they mean: “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.” It does not take a law degree to gather that almost every baby birthed on American soil is subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. In its 1898 decision, the Supreme Court indicated that “children born of alien enemies in hostile occupation and children of diplomatic representatives of a foreign State” were not subject to US jurisdiction and not citizens.
These extremely narrow exceptions to birthright citizenship came to us from the English common law, which still applies in the US, except where changed by laws enacted since our country was born. As an example, an Idaho statute incorporates the common law, except where changed by federal or Idaho law.
Trump has falsely claimed that no other country has birthright citizenship, but all counties in North America and almost all in South America derived it from Western European countries and still observe it today.
The meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment comports with the vision of Abraham Lincoln’s administration, well before the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted on July 9, 1868. In November of 1862, Lincoln’s Attorney General, Edward Bates, issued a legal opinion stating: “Every person born in the country is, at the moment of birth, prima facie a citizen…without any reference to race or color, or any other accidental circumstance.”
Labrador’s opinion piece was published the day before the US Supreme Court heard arguments on the birthright citizenship issue. The Court appeared to throw cold water on Labrador’s flawed viewpoint. It was an uphill fight for the 24 GOP Attorneys General because there is no language in the Fourteenth Amendment that supports their contentions. It says nothing about the residence, domicile or allegiance of any parent. Citizenship is bestowed on the newborn merely because the birth took place on US soil.
Some would see Labrador as a bit of a curmudgeon for trying to deprive others of what he does not have–birthright citizenship. Those born in Puerto Rico have citizenship under a mere Congressional statute, rather than under the Constitution. The Jones-Shafroth Act, passed by Congress in 1917, granted statutory citizenship to residents of Puerto Rico. The underhanded purpose of the law was to make Puerto Rican men subject to being drafted for World War One.
That brings me to something that has puzzled me for quite some time. In an October 2024 Trump rally in Madison Square Garden, a so-called comedian famously called Puerto Rico a ”floating island of garbage.” That was a despicable, mean-spirited slur that had no place in public discourse. What was truly head scratching is that Labrador chose to dress himself in a garbage bag for Halloween a few days later. It demonstrated extremely poor taste. A person proud of his birthplace would normally call the culprit to account for his atrocious conduct, instead of appearing to go along with it.
While we are on the subject of Puerto Rico, it’s time the MAGA crowd stopped making that US territory the butt of jokes and start recognizing its value to the nation. Its citizens pay federal taxes, except for income derived on the island, and they send their sons and daughters to serve in the US military. About 227,000 have served since 1917 and more than 1,225 of those have died in that service. About 48,000 served in my war, Vietnam, and 357 of those died. Let’s quit trying to force Canada and Greenland to become part of the United States and offer that opportunity to a territory that has been with us through thick and thin since 1898. Puerto Ricans are entitled to voting representation in Congress and the right to vote in our presidential elections, if they so choose.
But, I digress. Getting back to the birthright citizen issue, it is close to a certainty that the Supreme Court will turn aside the effort of Trump and Labrador to destroy our birthright citizenship tradition. It has been the law of the country since 1868 and the only lawful way to change it is to amend the Constitution. An unlawful executive order won’t suffice.
Share on Facebook
