Dahlia Lithwick on Trump's Un-American Project: Citizenship, Due Process, and the Courts

Landmark Ruling on Alien Enemies Act

• 🏛️ A Trump-appointed judge, Fernando Rodriguez Jr., issued a landmark decision against the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act.
• 🚫 The judge ruled that the Act cannot be repurposed for deporting migrants and issued a permanent injunction against its use in his district.
• 📜 The ruling emphasized that the Act, from 1798, applies to military invasions by foreign nations, not to alleged gang members accused of criminal acts.

Birthright Citizenship Under Threat

• 🇺🇸 The Trump administration's executive order aimed to redefine birthright citizenship, stating only children of citizens or green card holders are citizens.
• 👶 This order would require documentation to prove citizenship for millions of children born annually in the US.
• ⚖️ Courts have consistently ruled this executive order blatantly unconstitutional, with judges appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents agreeing.
• 📜 The 14th Amendment's Citizenship Clause, ratified in 1868, was intended to provide a clear, universal rule for citizenship.

Historical Context and Legal Arguments

• ⚖️ The Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) definitively upheld birthright citizenship for children born in the US, regardless of parental immigration status.
• 🏛️ Arguments against birthright citizenship often hinge on a narrow interpretation of "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," implying a need for complete allegiance, a term not present in the Constitution.
• 🚫 The Reconstruction Congress intended to end ambiguity regarding citizenship, not create new tests of ancestry or lineage.

Citizenship Stripping and Denaturalization Efforts

• ⚠️ The administration has engaged in efforts to denaturalize naturalized citizens, establishing an office to investigate hundreds of thousands of individuals.
• 💔 There are reports of US citizen children being deported, highlighting the administration's willingness to expel citizens.
• 📜 Historically, the US has deported citizens, such as Mexican-Americans during the 1930s and 1950s, and women who lost citizenship through marriage.

Redefining "American"

• 🎯 The core of the Trump administration's project is to redefine what it means to be an American, linking it to loyalty to the administration.
• 🚫 This approach questions who gets to claim American citizenship, undermining values of inclusiveness and rejecting tests of ancestry or lineage.
• ✊ The fight for birthright citizenship is a battle for the nation's foundational values of equality and belonging.