'Sad history': Supreme Court justices' opinions in birthright citizenship case
4. Kavanaugh invites Congress to eliminate birthright citizenship
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of three jurists appointed to the bench by Trump, issued a concurring opinion agreeing that the president’s executive order should be struck down but disagreeing with the majority’s conclusion that it violated the 14th Amendment.
Instead, he insisted that the executive order violates a federal statute stemming from the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1940, which declares that all those “born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof ” are “nationals and citizens of the United States.”
Kavanaugh maintained that “Congress could — consistent with the Fourteenth Amendment — amend §1401(a) or otherwise enact new legislation establishing exceptions to birthright citizenship for children born to foreign citizens unlawfully or temporarily in the country.”
He asserted that by excluding birthright citizenship from “foreign citizens who are either illegally or temporarily in the United States,” Trump’s executive order “goes beyond what §1401(a) authorizes.”
“For the Executive Order to be lawful, therefore, Congress would need to amend §1401(a) or otherwise enact new legislation to encompass those two new exceptions,” he added.
Kavanaugh added that he would uphold any constitutional amendment or law that would eliminate birthright citizenship for illegal aliens: “Such a statute, as I see it, would pass constitutional muster.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
