I said back in January that I believe the Supreme Court will throw out birthright citizenship. The Supremes might not rule that way in the case of births to green card holders or other non-citizens who are here legally, but I strongly suspect that they’ll say the U.S.-born children of immigrants who are here without legal certification aren’t citizens. I don’t think it matters that the arguments against birthright citizenship used to be seen as part of the right-wing fringe, as The New York Times noted yesterday — the desire to restrict citizenship is utterly mainstream among the Republican rank-and-file, and it’s not an important issue to swing voters, so I think the Court will, as usual, choose ideology over the Constitution.
But we don’t know whether the birthright citizenship case currently before the Court will lead to a ruling on birthright citizenship itself. Politico reports:
It’s perhaps the most high-profile case of the year, but it’s not clear what exactly the court will be deciding.
