President Trump's Citizenship Plan: A Constitutional Conundrum?

Think back to the 1990s, when a bill similar to President Trump's recent executive order on birthright citizenship was floating around Congress. This bill aimed to stop children born in the U. S. to non-legal residents from automatically becoming citizens. Such bills have been proposed before, but they never gained traction. One of the witnesses against this bill was Walter Dellinger, a lawyer who worked for the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. He didn't mince words. "This bill is clearly unconstitutional, " he said. "We deal with tough legal issues all the time, but this isn't one of them. "

Fast forward to 2018, and Judge John C. Coughenour of the Federal District Court in Seattle echoed Dellinger's sentiments. While considering a temporary restraining order against Trump's order, the judge said, "In my four decades on the bench, I've never seen a case with a clearer constitutional question. This order is obviously unconstitutional. "

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