OPINION: Attorney General Raul Labrador flunks the birthright citizenship exam
Idaho’s attorney general circulated a political opinion piece on March 31 suggesting that babies born on US soil are not entitled to U.S. citizenship if their parents are not lawfully residing in America at the time of their birth. This is completely counter to the language of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as a landmark decision of the U.S. 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 Jan. 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 for 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.
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