The Danger to Democracy Behind the Birthright Debate
The risk in making citizenship dependent on politicians instead of the Constitution.
Hey guys—I’m sitting in for JVL today. Happy Fourth of July week, and happy Canada Day to our readers up north. A little programming note: I just recorded a video with two top immigration experts and our own Adrian Carrasquillo answering questions from the Bulwark community about SCOTUS’s immigration decisions. That should be out this evening—stay tuned.
–Ben
1. A Citizenship Scenario
We should all be very glad that the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship. If the justices had overturned it, the first-order implications would have been appalling for hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their children, and for people who were adopted—even if they were born in America to American parents and raised in America by American parents.
But the second-order effects could have been catastrophic for democracy—and the threat against birthright citizenship isn’t entirely gone, so it’s worth taking a good, hard look at it.