Anthony Michael Kreis, Evan D. Bernick, Paul A. Gowder, March 03, 2025
“This essay critically surveys the current debate surrounding birthright citizenship in america, significantly in gentle of arguments introduced by authorized students Randy Barnett and Ilan Wurman. Beneath the guise of “originalism,” Barnett, Wurman, and others suggest an ahistorical, revisionist interpretation of the Fourteenth Modification’s Citizenship Clause. They counsel that the time period “jurisdiction” must be understood as “allegiance,” seemingly to provide the veneer of legitimacy to the Trump Administration’s view that the kids of undocumented immigrants is probably not Americans. The essay argues that Barnett and Wurman’s method, which makes an attempt to radically redefine the historic understanding of citizenship, is methodologically flawed and undermines core rules of constitutional legislation. The critique exposes the inaccuracies and inconsistencies of their place and scrutinizes the scholarly benefit of recent theories of birthright citizenship which might be wildly inconsistent with constitutional textual content, historical past, precedent, and unbroken custom. The essay concludes by inspecting the skilled duty of authorized students to have interaction in rigorous, fact-based historic evaluation relatively than politically motivated reinterpretations that threaten to destabilize elementary constitutional rights.”
