Wall Street Journal: Trunp is right on birthright citizenship | Eastern NC Now

Among conservative legal s;cholats, "originalism" staying true to the intent of the drafters of the Constitution and its amendments, is the most fundamental consideration in interpreting them.  Liberals prefer to twist meanings to get whatever result they want at the moment. This will be the key battle in the Supreme Court over President Trump's executive order ending "birthright citizenship".

Most developed countries in the world base citizenship on the nationality of the parents, not on where the child happens to be born.  President Trump's EO follows that theory of citizenship.

The issue before the Supreme Court turns on the meaning of the words "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" in the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause.   After its adoption, the Supreme Court heard a case on the issue of whether American Indians were US citizens under the 14th amendment or not.  The court held that since Indians were subject to the jurisdiction of their tribal governments which were treated as nations, that the 14th amendment did not make them citizens of the US.  Congress had to pass legislation to make them citizens.

Most important in the present case is that more research into the positions of the authors of the 14th amendment clearly shows that they did not intend to give citizenship to children of foreign citizens just because they happened to be born in the United States. Tis was clearly stated in both the House and Senate while the 14th amendment was under consideration and no member at the time even suggested otherwise.

The majority on our Supreme Court claims to be originalists.  This case will be test to see if they really are.  One has to be concerned about weak kneeded members like John Roberts and Amy Comey Barrett.

The Wall Street Journal has a great opinion piece on the subject:

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trump-is-right-on-birthright-citizenship-954ae377?st=tWd4Ha

Other good articles:

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/restoring-meaning-american-citizenship

https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2026/03/31/supreme-court-will-hear-arguments-on-crucial-case-wednesday-and-trump-says-he-will-be-there-n2200842