S8 Ep1115: Headline: The Myth of Birthright Citizenship and the 14th Amendment Guest: Richard Epstein Professor Richard Epstein analyzes birthright citizenship, arguing the 14th Amendment's original intent excluded foreigners. He critiques the concept of "tourist ba
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 11 July 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
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Summary
Headline: The Myth of Birthright Citizenship and the 14th Amendment Guest: Richard Epstein Professor Richard Epstein analyzes birthright citizenship, arguing the 14th Amendment's original intent excluded foreigners. He critiques the concept of "tourist babies" and suggests the president's plenary naturalization powers could be used to restrict entry for pregnant mothers seeking citizenship for their children. (3)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Batchler, birthright citizenship. The President of the United States |
| 0:20.1 | disappointed in the Supreme Court's |
| 0:22.3 | decision asks for another chance to submit his case for birthright citizenship to the court, |
| 0:29.4 | something that I immediately go to Richard Epstein, Professor Richard Epstein of Sibitos Institute, |
| 0:35.7 | who teaches law at NYU and the University of Chicago, to ask, is that done? |
| 0:40.4 | Can a president get special privileges to resubmit a Supreme Court case that is disappointed in? |
| 0:47.3 | Richard, a very good evening to you. Your book, The Myth of Birth Rights Citizenship, just published. |
| 0:52.9 | Highly recommended what the 14th Amendment |
| 0:55.5 | really says will always be in documents studied by professors and students for the next |
| 1:02.9 | hundred years because this issue is not going away. It's a question of how the Constitution |
| 1:08.4 | is read and what your motives are at the time, so-called |
| 1:11.7 | originalism. |
| 1:12.9 | That is some of the case that has been made in public. |
| 1:16.5 | Your book is much more turning on the details of the 14th Amendment and the history of the |
| 1:21.9 | story since then, especially with an associate justice named Horace Gray. |
| 1:26.6 | A very large man for the time, |
| 1:29.1 | well over six and a half feet, I believe, a vigorous smile, but made an error in reading |
| 1:36.1 | the Constitution that has left us in this quandary since. So one, can the President get special |
| 1:42.4 | privileges at the Supreme Court? |
| 1:44.8 | And two, what is to be done about birthright citizenship? |
| 1:47.8 | Good evening. |
| 1:48.5 | Okay, well, the first one is I think it's actually the opposite. |
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