Supreme Court upholds broad conception of birthright citizenship(apnews.com)
204 points by toomuchtodo 21 hours ago | 519 comments
tl;dr: The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to uphold birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment, rejecting the Trump administration's executive order that sought to deny citizenship to children born in the US to parents in the country illegally or temporarily. Chief Justice Roberts' majority opinion grounded the ruling in English common law and Reconstruction history, while Justice Thomas dissented, arguing the Citizenship Clause was narrowly intended for freed slaves. In response, the DOJ directed prosecutors to crack down on "birth tourism" schemes, and Trump called on Congress to legislate against birthright citizenship despite the constitutional ruling.
HN Discussion:
  • Ruling reflects clear constitutional text; dissenting justices are hypocritical or partisan
  • The 6-3 split itself is alarming given how obvious the constitutional reading is
  • Birthright citizenship is bad policy globally and constitution should be amended
  • The issue only reached SCOTUS due to manufactured controversy and media bias
  • Neutral contextual information about global prevalence of jus soli citizenship