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Thursday, August 20, 2015

Trump Didn't Invent Trumpism

While he has brought it to prominent attention, this idea of ending brithright citizenship is not someting he invented. The GOP has been playing with this for years. The problem with Trump is the GOP didn't really want to discuss it during the Presidential election.

"Their plan rests on the willingness of state or national lawmakers to push through a constitutionally-questionable law in the hopes that the conservative Supreme Court will take it as bait to scale back the 14th Amendment. Crazier things have happened in the John Roberts court."

“This notion that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone who has happened to be born on U.S. soil no matter how they’re here -- they're just wrong,” said Chapman University School of Law Dean John Eastman, who has led conservative legal fights on everything from gay marriage to reining in the Supreme Court."

"The House Judiciary Committee held hearings on the issue in the spring under the title: "Birthright Citizenship: Is It The Right Policy For America?" Eastman testified at the hearing in support of ending birthright citizenship and told TPM this week that criticisms that “Trump’s idea is silly because it would take a constitutional amendment -- that’s not true.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/birthright-citizenship-constitution

I noted a few weeks after I got back from England that Trump would be taken absolutely seriously on this issue in Britain.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/08/trump-really-could-win-in-britain.html

Not just Britain either but probably even more so in Europe-France, Germany, forget about it. We actually are much more tolerant than Europe.
The fundamental point about American citizenship is it's not based in blood. It doesn't matter who your family or ancestors are or were which makes us different than Europe.

Yet the party of Lincoln is trying to do away with this pillar of American Exceptionalism. Heck, you even have talk about rolling back the 13th amendment-against slavery.

Trump has been insisting that his lawyers are going to 'look into' the 14th amendment. TPM's point is well-taken: the Roberts Court did 'look at the Voting Rights Act' and gutted it. So maybe it doesn't sound so crazy that it could-not strike down literally-but rollback the meaning and application of the 14th amendment.




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