Can Trump End Birthright Citizenship?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome our friend Hans von Spokowski back to the program
from the Heritage Foundation. On one of the many orders
and actions of this new president presidential administration. They certainly
caught my attention, Hans, and a lot of people's, and
I'm wondering how it might work, and that is Trump's
order to end birthright citizenship. What's unusual about this one,

(00:24):
strikingly is that this is part of the fourteenth Amendment
of the Constitution. Number one, good morning, number two. How
will this work?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well? What he's not trying to change the concerts, by
the way, good morning. And hey, don't we all feel
like little kids on Christmas morning to go to the
tree and every single thing we wished for is under
the Christmas tree. I mean, that's what it's been like
reading these executive orders. Yes, have just been terrific. He's

(00:55):
not changing the fourteenth Amendment. He's telling agencies like the
State Department to correctly apply the fourteenth Amendment. And let
me tell you all the media people out there, the
Bluestake others and others who are saying, oh, well, he's wrong.

(01:16):
It's been settled ever since the fourtune Amendment was passed
that anyone born in the US is a US citizen.
That is a lie, and that is just totally wrong.
Here's what everybody needs to know. There are two parts
to the clause of the fourteenth Amendment. The first is, yeah,
being born in the United States. But the second part

(01:38):
is being subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Now,
all these other so called experts mistakenly say, oh, well,
if you're in the US, you're subject to our jurisdiction.
They're not talking about territorial jurisdiction. What that means is, Look,
if a German germanist comes to the and assaults somebody

(02:03):
or robs a bank, Yeah, of course they're subject to
our legal jurisdiction and they can be prosecuted. But if
you look back at the ratification process, and particularly when
it passed in Congress, what the sponsors said is being
subject to the jurisdiction of the US means you owe

(02:23):
your political allegiance to the US and no other country.
The German tourists, let's go back to the German tourists.
The German tourist comes to the US, she has a
baby here in the US. That baby is a German
citizen because our mother was German and she owes her

(02:45):
political allegiance not to the US but to the German government.
So anyone born of an illegal alien is not a
US citizen. Now here's the other thing about this. There's
only been three, three cases peripherally on this in the
entire history of the United States before the US Supreme Court.

(03:08):
They're all from the late eighteen hundreds, and in the
first one, a case called Slaughterhouse, the Supreme Court said
subjects of jurisdiction means excludes children of citizens or subjects
of foreign states born within the United States. That couldn't

(03:29):
be clearer, right, there's another case. Yeah, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Well, I'm just going to say so, when this gets
to the Supreme Court, which it needs to, the argument
is going to be over do we take these words
literally or do we go back and look at the
intent of the people who promoted this amendment and rule
that way? And it was we're probably looking at five

(03:54):
What do you thinks five to four in favor of
Trump or five to four against I think Trump.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Trump will win it five for at least he might
even win it six six ' three. And he's I mean,
he's right about this. And what does his order do.
That's what people ask. Well, all these states, all these
states are suing the president. Well, the executive order doesn't
force these states to do anything. It only applies to

(04:25):
federal agencies. So the best example of it is the
US State Department. He's saying to the State Department, you
cannot issue a passport to someone unless they prove that
they are US citizen. And that means they were not
only born in the US, by the time they were born,

(04:46):
at least one of their parents was a US citizen.
And that that's what it did. It's easy.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
So what happens. First, there'll be I assume because I
think the SLU fire and filed suit against this immediately.
So they'll probably be a request for a stay right
on the president's order. So it'll be business as usual
until it guts two the Supreme Court, and that'll take
a while.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
No, that's right, and look, they may get us stayed.
They probably will get us stayed, not because the president's
wrong with the law, but because before he left office,
Joe Biden appointed more federal judges than any other president
in history. He beat Donald Trump by I think one

(05:31):
judge yea. And those judges are the most left wing,
radical ideologues in American history to get appointed to the bench.
And so what you're going what they're going to do
is they're they're gonna venue shop. They're gonna find their
craziest left winger who will agree with them no matter

(05:53):
what the law.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Actually is, which is just sick. I just hate that. Hans,
thank you for the time. Always good to talk and
we'll check back with you throughout the year. Hans von
Spokowski from Heritage Foundation here on kfab's Morning News