True, but my point is that he can weasel his way out of anything if he wants, so I’m not relying on him in the hypothetical case against birthright citizenship the way I kind of am with Roberts.
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On the kind of bright side, most of the political pundits seem to think that this is just Trump BSing prior to the elections, similar to other things he’s talked about doing in the past that he won’t actually follow through on.
One thing to keep in mind is just how far is Trump willing to go with the birthright citizenship thing if he were to actually follow-through. Would it be constrained to those whose parents were here illegally? Would it be retroactive? Would it be constrained to all children of non-citizens, even if said non-citizens were here legally? All of those issues could complicate the matter.
I hope this is just a political thought experiment and not really what will happen, but let’s examine the broadest possible executive order: all children of non-citizens, even those who were here legally, lose their birthright citizenship retroactively with no time limit – essentially revoking the 14th Amendment by fiat. Clarence Thomas would then lose his citizenship, given that his ancestors were non-citizen slaves. Kavanaugh and Alito, given how the Irish and Italians were relatively recent immigrants to the country, also may lose their citizenship if it is shown any of their ancestors were not born to naturalized citizens and subsequently naturalized. The craziness this could cause is boundless. The thing is, Trump might be wacko enough to do something crazy like this.
Given the questionable legality of Ivana Trump’s and Melania Trump’s own citizenship, Trump’s own children could have their citizenship stripped from them as well.
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You mean the one he ignores, or the one he said he should’ve aborted?
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Trump’s three oldest children, Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka, are all from his first wife, and he appears to care about them, at least to some degree.
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To be fair, I am personally scared by this as I’m not sure if I’d end up losing my birthright citizenship depending on how all this goes down. While both my parents were here legally when I was born, I don’t know about my mom’s citizenship status at the time (though I could ask her – I just haven’t gotten around to it yet). I know for a fact my dad wasn’t naturalized yet as he got naturalized in the 90’s.
Even if they decided to end birthright citizenship there is literally no way they would retroactively remove everyone who received it already.
Maybe with his time as Speaker growing short, Paul Ryan is finally growing a spine?
"…House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) also dismissed the idea during a radio interview, saying it is not consistent with the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
“Well you obviously cannot do that,” Ryan said on WVLK in Kentucky. “You cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order. Ryan also said that Republicans did not like it when President Barack Obama changed immigration policy by executive action and that altering the Constitution would be a lengthy process.”
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Don’t be so sure. They’ve already been retroactively removing citizenship of people born near the Texas/Mexico border due to “irregularities” in their birth certificates.
That said, okay, confirmed with my mom that she was already naturalized by the time I was born. So while it makes it a smidge less personal, I’m still taking it very personally as I feel a very strong kinship with all immigrants due to my background.
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The real issue is that this is a clear lob to the core base of the Republican Party: abject racists.
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No one is denying that.
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It also further legitimizes racist citizens to treat any POC within their particular racist wheelhouse as illegitimate, including harassment, violence, and weaponized law enforcement. It reinforces the idea that to be American, one must not only be a citizen but a white citizen. Sure retroactive removal of all citizenship would be an insurmountable task, but as current enforcement proves, application is never equal. It increases the psychological threat against POC citizens, who currently can be picked up by ICE, deported etc. if profiled and not carrying documentation – now the nation’s supposedly utmost documentation is potentially not good enough, and challengeable, at the whims of a overwhemingly corrupt government. The risks of this hanging on possibly one man, totally not concerned 
.
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This is why I started traveling with my passport whenever I leave home.
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Thinly veiled white supremacy, aimed at removing all protections for minority groups under the guise of “Freedom”, because after the Ron Paul newsletters gig, they learned for at least a while that the “To be bigots without repercussion” bit that follows that cry of “freedom” is the bit you say real quiet?
Not sure Gorsch is a Ron Paul disciple.
Shrug Doesn’t really matter, most libertarians aren’t that far different. The biggest difference is that the Ron Paul crowd have a habit of saying the quiet part real loud.
"We cannot know, from the brief docket entries that are available to us in this sealed case, that the matter involves President Trump. But we do know from Politico’s reporting that it involves the special counsel and that the action here was filed the day after Giuliani noted publicly, “[W]e’re pretty much finished with our memorandum opposing a subpoena.” We know that the district court had ruled in favor of the special counsel and against the witness; that the losing witness has moved with alacrity and with authority; and that the judges have responded with accelerated rulings and briefing schedules. We know that Judge Katsas, Trump’s former counsel and nominee, has recused himself. And we know that this sealed legal matter will come to a head in the weeks just after the midterm elections.
If Mueller were going to subpoena the president—and there’s every reason why a careful and thorough prosecutor would want the central figure on the record on critical questions regarding his knowledge and intent—this is just the way we would expect him to do so. Quietly, expeditiously, and refusing to waste the lull in public action demanded by the midterm elections. It all fits."
Trump was trying to delay the case, but he was thankfully denied.
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Voted first thing this morning. My vote for Congress was basically pissing in the ocean, a black woman Democrat in my district is a nonstarter. My Senate vote will probably run with the majority though, the GOP candidate is a neo-Confederate and Northern Virginia will have none of that. Virginia is weird, northern Virginia is metropolitan and holds most of the population so statewide offices are reliably Democrat but most of the rest is rural so our state delegates and and members of Congress lean far more red.
Also we have an interesting voting system. You fill a paper ballot that works like a scantron. You fill it out and put it through a scanner then it drops in a bin, so there’s a paper copy and an automatic count. Seems like a decent system, automation with a paper backup, and it didn’t seem to be connected to any network so secure from hacking.
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