Well, I believe this is the last week of the Supreme Court session. And most of the big decisions have been handed down. But the 600-pound gorilla in the court, birthright citizenship, is still hanging out there. And so, I’ve been trying to decide whether leaving it for the last means it’s more likely to be overturned or confirmed.
It’s a real puzzle. Rejecting Trump’s challenge to the birthright citizenship interpretation of the 14th amendment is the conventional reading and if the court was unwilling to buck convention, then would they leave it to the end to minimize the amount of abuse they would inevitably receive from Donald Trump? Or does leaving it to the end signal that they are going to go out with a bang this year and save the biggest decision for last?
The pessimist in me says they’re going to deny Trump. After all you have the three commies who will surely vote against Trump and you also have John Roberts who is a squish and almost certainly would be afraid of taking such a stance even if he were completely convinced of the logic. So that’s 4/5 without any other waverers. How sure am I that the other five will be unanimous for Trump’s argument? Well, not very.
But I’ve decided to force myself to take an optimistic stance on this highly important ruling. I’m throwing my weight behind a Trump victory. Whenever the last day of the term is, I predict that the Supreme Court of the United States of America will vote by a 5/4 margin that children born in the United States, to non-citizens are not automatically citizens of this country.
And that decision along with the recent decision allowing Trump to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for roughly 350,000 Haitians (and about 6,000 Syrians) will allow him to accelerate his immigration policies.
TPS is a humanitarian program that allows nationals from countries facing ongoing crises (e.g., natural disasters, violence, or instability) to live and work legally in the U.S. without facing deportation while conditions in their home country remain unsafe. And that means they never leave.
So, I’m using this earlier decision as a rationale for my mindless optimism. The thought is, if the justices were wise enough to see the logic that allows one president to declare something an emergency and another to declare the emergency over, then they can see the logic that would make the 14th amendment a stopgap to enfranchise the children of freed slaves but not want to utilize it to allow illegal aliens to steal American citizenship for their children.
Alright, have I convinced myself? Have I convinced you?
SURE!!!
Well, stay tuned. The decision is in the next few days and it will tell us quite a bit about our current Supreme Court. Who knows, maybe Hakeem Jeffries is right. Maybe we need to increase the court to thirteen justices and flood it with wild-eyed conservatives who will do my bidding. Or maybe we’re just entering the silly season and I need a vacation.