Re: Coverage of the Birthright Citizenship case
Today's episode, Ryan and Emily chatted a bit about the birthright citizenship case which came down 6-3 on the statutory side, 5-4 on the constitutional basis.
They spend most of the time talking about conservative fury over the disloyalty of some of the justices, which I do think is an important part of the story. They then spend a little time talking about the policy merits, eg, how bad actually is "birth tourism?"
They spend no time talking about the actual judicial merits of the case, which I think is the main story. It is the absolute plain text reading of the 14th amendment that we have birthright citizenship. It's also the originalist reading: there is plenty of documented evidence that the people who passed it understood it to grant citizenship to any person born here, not just ex-slaves. That 4 justices saw fit to rule against that interpretation is an absolute crisis of legitimacy for the court. That conservatives are mad more of them didn't is a farce.