Commentators blast Supreme Court's birthright citizenship ruling: 'A legal abomination'

2. Alan Dershowitz: 'The wording of the Constitution is dumb, but it's there'

Dershowitz, a legal scholar and former Harvard law professor who specializes in constitutional law, blamed the crisis over birthright citizenship on the text of the 14th Amendment itself.

Framing the debate as "a very interesting conflict between textualism and common sense," Dershowitz said Tuesday on "The Megyn Kelly Show" that birthright citizenship was "the dumbest idea ever conceived of by anybody."

"No smart person would ever put birthright citizenship in a constitution. Almost no other country in the world has it," he said, adding that the concept is "stupid, stupid, stupid."

.@AlanDersh: "Birthright citizenship is the dumbest idea ever conceived of anybody... Almost no other country in the world has it... The problem is the wording of the Constitution. It's dumb, but it's there." pic.twitter.com/sXcN8u6RU5

— The Megyn Kelly Show (@MegynKellyShow) July 1, 2026

"Also, it was never intended to cover people from China who come here, give birth and then go back and have no allegiance to the United States. That's all clear. The problem is the wording of the Constitution. The wording of the Constitution is dumb, but it's there," he said.

Dershowitz said amending the U.S. Constitution would solve the issue, which he noted is "unlikely" to happen.

Earlier in the program, Megyn Kelly noted that the Supreme Court ruling has affirmed that "anybody from China can come over here, have a baby and that baby will be an American, no matter what. They can leave the day after the child is born, the minute after the child is born."

She noted that the debate over the issue has led many to question their prevailing presuppositions about citizenship.

"If you actually look at the history of that practice here in the United States, and then what happened after the 14th Amendment was passed, you see that's wrong. You find out that that's actually not the way this, the 14th Amendment, was treated, the way the founders understood this country would operate," she said.

"And there was plenty of basis to strike down birthright tourism based on the phrasing of the 14th Amendment."