Why Birthright Citizenship Must End Now

Adriana Stone 0 1 min read

Why Birthright Citizenship Must End Now

Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, went on Fox News this week and didn’t mince words. He called the U.S. practice of automatic birthright citizenship “insane.”

Turley’s point was blunt. He said the country is one of the few in the world that still hands citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ status. He warned this is being abused and that it poses a real danger to the republic.

That warning landed as the Supreme Court heard arguments about President Donald Trump’s executive order that aimed to end birthright citizenship for children born to illegal aliens. The case has forced the justices to look at the 14th Amendment, its original meaning, and whether modern realities change that meaning.

Turley told the hosts: “The fact that we are one of the few countries that continues to embrace birthright citizenship is perfectly insane, and it is a great danger to this government and to this republic,” Turley said. ” So the question for these justices is not necessarily if they agree with birthright citizenship. I expect the majority does not.”

He also pointed out something people on all sides noticed: liberal justices sounded surprisingly originalist during arguments. As Turley put it: “What was really astonishing yesterday is it appeared that we might have nine originalists on the court because the liberal justices started to channel Scalia and to say, ‘oh, you know, we’ve got to stick with the original intent here.’ These are justices, when they look at other rights like the Second Amendment, treat that language as barely a speed bump,” Turley continued. “And they say, well, we have to look at this living constitution and the problems we’re facing today. Well, the problems we’re facing today on birthright citizenship are existential in my view.”

Turley isn’t a predictable conservative voice. He leans liberal on many issues. But on this, he agreed with the GOP critique: the policy is outdated, open to exploitation, and creates perverse incentives at the border. That’s the core of the Republican argument and why this case matters.

Expect heated debate to keep coming. The justices are wrestling with history, text, and real-world consequences. If they side with the Trump administration, the rules of citizenship in America could change dramatically.

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