Birthright Citizenship? Can President Trump Limit a Misunderstood Portion of the 14th Amendment?
Case in Point: The Legal Show on the Hottest Legal Cases in Politics and Culture
The Heritage Foundation
4.5 • 527 Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2025
⏱️ 51 minutes
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Summary
On this week's edition of Case in Point, we address one of President Trump's most controversial executive orders, titled "Protecting The Meaning And Value of American Citizenship" with Heritage Senior Legal Fellow Amy Swearer. The Order moves to end birthright citizenship practice -- something which guarantees that U.S.-born children are citizens regardless of their parents’ status.
The next day, attorneys general from 22 states sued to block the Executive Order by asserting that the President is attempting to eliminate "a well-established and longstanding Constitutional principle" by executive fiat. But is he?
What is the history of the language of the "citizenship clause" in the 14th Amendment? And what does it reveal? What happens next in the litigation? All that and more on this week's edition of "Case in Point"
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Right is still right, even if you stand by yourself. |
| 0:04.6 | Mr. Chief Justice, may it place the card. |
| 0:07.8 | Welcome to this week's edition of Case and Point, the legal show for regular people. |
| 0:12.6 | It is Thursday, January 30th. |
| 0:14.9 | I am your host, Sarah Persia Perry, a senior legal fellow here at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. |
| 0:20.7 | And it has been a flurry of activity in the nation's capital in the past few days. |
| 0:25.3 | We've seen 3,500 ICE arrests, more than 300 executive orders, |
| 0:30.2 | an official recognition of a two-sex government policy, male and female, |
| 0:35.4 | and an end to all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs funded |
| 0:40.0 | and through the federal government. Conservatives everywhere are celebrating a lot of what they |
| 0:45.7 | consider to be significant wins, but one executive order in particular, ending so-called |
| 0:51.3 | birthright citizenship, has proven to be controversial, not just in conservative |
| 0:56.3 | circles, but in liberal circles as well. |
| 0:59.7 | Where does this so-called birthright citizenship right come from? |
| 1:03.7 | Well, from the 14th Amendment. |
| 1:06.0 | But what did the ratifiers and framers of the 14th Amendment mean when they included language on citizens |
| 1:13.1 | of the United States? We're going to talk to senior legal fellow Amy Swearer, who wrote a |
| 1:18.4 | substantial law review article on exactly that definition here on today's case and point |
| 1:24.9 | and discuss whether or not Trump's executive order is going to stand up in court. |
| 1:29.7 | So with that, we bring you this week's Case in Point. |
| 1:39.1 | I am joined by my dear friend, and I know I say that about everybody that joins me. We are actually |
| 1:47.0 | real life. IRL, we are friends. Senior legal fellow Amy Swear, who covers quite a number of |
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