Keep pulling the thread on Thomas Berry.
A Trump-era executive order challenges the long-standing U.S. policy of birthright citizenship, which grants automatic citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil.
The legal argument for President Trump's executive order is that children of individuals in the U.S. illegally should not be citizens, based on an interpretation of the 14th Amendment's clause "subject to the jurisdiction thereof."
The current Supreme Court case concerning the Trump administration's birthright citizenship policy is focused on the legality of nationwide injunctions, not the constitutional merits of birthright citizenship itself.
If the Supreme Court sides with the Trump administration in the current case, it would only be a ruling against the use of a nationwide injunction and not a decision on the constitutionality of the birthright citizenship executive order.
President Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship is intended to apply only to children born in the future and does not affect the citizenship status of individuals already born in the U.S. to parents who were in the country illegally.
If the Supreme Court rules against the nationwide injunction, it is possible that within 30 days of the decision, individuals born in certain states to parents in the U.S. illegally might not be granted citizenship at birth.
The primary purpose of the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause was to ensure that all individuals, including former slaves and their children, were recognized as citizens at birth in the United States.
The Supreme Court has historically interpreted the 14th Amendment's "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" clause to only exclude individuals with special immunity, such as the children of foreign ambassadors.
Thomas Berry believes that if President Trump's view on birthright citizenship ultimately prevails on its merits, it would be a "huge change in the law" and make it much more complicated to determine who is a U.S. citizen.
Several states, including New Jersey, have secured court rulings that protect birthright citizenship for individuals born within their borders while the federal case is being litigated.
A final Supreme Court decision on the constitutional merits of the birthright citizenship issue could take one to two years to be reached.
A Supreme Court opinion on the nationwide injunction case could be released as soon as the current week because the court fast-tracked the arguments.