Let's talk about the 14th Amendment, because Trump announced during an Axios interview last night that he will sign an executive order overturning it.
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
First of all, what is the origin of the 14th Amendment? It was part of Reconstruction after the Civil War.
By extending citizenship to those born in the U.S., the amendment nullified an 1857 Supreme Court decision (Dred Scott v. Sandford), which had held that those descended from slaves could not be citizens.
But but but.... the Amendment did not exclude the children of Chinese immigrants, who were here for decades. That's important to remember, because wingnuts have insisted for years that it only applied to slaves.
Twitter experts are scoffing at the idea this morning. But Hillary Clinton warned us he would do it, and she's been right about everything so far. Just sayin'! And we do know that the Kochs have been pouring money in gubernatorial races BECAUSE they want to buy themselves a Constitutional convention.
So the question is, will he simply assert it as fact and wait for the GOP to fall in line? Or is it just another piece of red meat for his electoral base? After all, he makes quite a lot of money selling Sunny Isles condos to pregnant Russians who want their kids to be American citizens:
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We know he can't legally do this. It doesn't mean he won't try, and it will keep him controlling the headlines for as long as he wants.
You'll see a lot of right-wing armchair constitutional lawyers repeating the right-wing meme that the 14th only applied to those brought here as slaves, but that's horse hockey.
It's been shown to apply to everyone born here, again and again.
