I've been writing about birthright citizenship for 20 years. This thread strings together my opinion pieces (not law review tomes, which I will post separately). I wrote a book about the Fourteenth Amendment and I debated John Eastman 20 years ago about his vile plan to end birthright citizenship./1 - ThreadSky

garrettepps.bsky.social • 33 days ago

I've been writing about birthright citizenship for 20 years. This thread strings together my opinion pieces (not law review tomes, which I will post separately). I wrote a book about the Fourteenth Amendment and I debated John Eastman 20 years ago about his vile plan to end birthright citizenship./1

Comments

ceejaa.bsky.social•33 days ago

📌

Thank you!!

johnbean.bsky.social•33 days ago

📌

garrettepps.bsky.social•33 days ago

Done

lc-renmom.bsky.social•33 days ago

📌

melissalc53.bsky.social•33 days ago

📌

dissentinator.bsky.social•33 days ago

📌

lissajostewart.bsky.social•32 days ago

📌

someguyinmarana.bsky.social•27 days ago

Thank you for this, and for your related Washington Monthly article https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/01/27/trumps-flaming-turd-of-an-argument-for-ending-birthright-citizenship/. With all the chaos coming out of the executive branch right now it's nice to have some reassurance that _some_ precedents will likely hold.

garrettepps.bsky.social•33 days ago

Fifteen years ago, the right agreed that the Constitution would need to be changed to do away with birthright citizenship. But that began to seem just too hard./2

garrettepps.bsky.social•33 days ago

Where text is clear, a Da Vinci "originalist" suggests secret meanings. Where history is clear, they change the subject to Machiavelli, or Blackstone. Where the evidence thin, well, they raise a pinky and suggest that those who disagree are simply too stupid to understand the lost symbol./3

garrettepps.bsky.social•33 days ago

Here's a debate between me and a "scholar" who misquotes the evidence and cites it in the wrong context, and still can't get any traction on his claim that the "original meaning" is no birthright citizenship./4 http://publicsquare.net/birthright-citizenship-misquotes-mistakes-and-misleading-evidence-riddle-erlers-case

garrettepps.bsky.social•33 days ago

Rand Paul tries to negate the Fourteenth Amendment by inventing a claim that the Citizenship Clause only applies to "former slaves."/5 https://authory.com/app/content/a8c47455a90374f52b05adaf011954a13

boysek.bsky.social•33 days ago

Is there anything that man does not misunderstand?

skofarrell.bsky.social•33 days ago

Where did those slaves come from, Rand?

garrettepps.bsky.social•33 days ago

Eight years after I debated Eastman, the MAGA movement invented a new claim--Trump could abolish birthright citizenship on his own. Note how the POST allows this lackey to falsify a quote. Sloppiness, not malice. But still hard to forgive./6
https://authory.com/app/content/a3a73640562654a8c86f7efc0d9cfd07c

garrettepps.bsky.social•33 days ago

Testing the idea that children of the undocumented are not "subject to the jurisdiction": "If a foreign citizen rear-ends your car on your drive home today, will you, or the police, allow him to drive away? For those scoring at home, the answer is no."
/7
https://authory.com/app/content/a69fc26f3146e49d6ace9a47b915b4fc9

thefool37.bsky.social•33 days ago

I don't know, bro. Once you see 10,000 similar mistakes all aligned in the same direction you gotta start asking yourself about motivation.

robpmurphy.bsky.social•33 days ago

By that logic, where did Rand Paul's citizenship come from? He's not a former slave nor has he undergone naturalization. Without birthright citizenship, he's stateless.

sagastar.bsky.social•33 days ago

hey it worked for the insurrectionist clause of the 14th

anneblackerby.bsky.social•33 days ago

I wish this link would open

garrettepps.bsky.social•33 days ago

It takes a while--but it did open for me!

anneblackerby.bsky.social•33 days ago

Thanks, maybe my equipment. I’ll try yet again.

Remembering you from The Shad Planking, which I purchased for a gift, and overlapping at Hollins (my undergrad days; don’t think we ever met, but still a Virginia connection). 👋

dougom.bsky.social•33 days ago

More Rube Goldberg than DaVinci code, IMO.

anneblackerby.bsky.social•33 days ago

“…a reminder that inequality by birth was a doorway to dishonor.”

pl3justice.bsky.social•33 days ago

Ted Cruz was born in Canada. Just saying...

chetramey.bsky.social•32 days ago

📌

packrat74.bsky.social•33 days ago

📌

packrat74.bsky.social•33 days ago

📌

jrfree.bsky.social•33 days ago

history-rob.bsky.social•33 days ago

Thank you for a critical examination of the 14th amendment. I was curious to know how the Right “text and history” Constitutionalists would try to twist its meaning and you gave a master class. Thank you!