# How can Trump get around the 14th Amendment? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [December 9, 2024, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-get-around-the-14th-amendment/1011368 "2024-12-09T01:15:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-get-around-the-14th-amendment/1011368/261 "2025-01-23T03:36:52Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Here’s the justification as provided by Eric Schmitt He’s wrong, of course, as the Senate debate on the passage of the amendment plainly shows. > **[Citizenship Clause](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizenship_Clause#Senate_debate)** > > This is an accepted version of this page > The Citizenship Clause is the first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which was adopted on July 9, 1868, which states: > All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. > [@](#): > > Senator John Conness of California expressed support for the Amendment for giving a constitutional basis for birthright citizenship to all children born in the United States to any parentage (including Chinese noncitizen residents who do not intend to reside permanently in the United States), even though he (and others) thought it had already been guaranteed by the Act, whereas Cowan opposed the Amendment (and Act), arguing that it would have the undesirable outcome of extending citizenship to the children of Chinese and Romani immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-get-around-the-14th-amendment/1011368/262 "2025-01-23T03:52:07Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > [x.com](https://x.com/Eric_Schmitt/status/1881872524021051574) I do not care what and if Harry Reid said if it did not become a law. If the Repubs want to make this so, propose a 28th amendment repealing some or all of the 14th. Try and use better terminology than “anchor babies” and be like law-type-making-guys. By their inactions they are allowing a President to write laws that challenge amendments, then leaving it up to SCOTUS. We’re going to be dealing with more serious stuff like the War Powers Act and if Congress doesn’t take that power back then they are useless and who needs Article I ? We’ve got the King and his Court. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-get-around-the-14th-amendment/1011368/263 "2025-01-23T08:51:30Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > We’re going to be dealing with more serious stuff like the War Powers Act and if Congress doesn’t take that power back then they are useless and who needs Article I ? We’ve got the King and his Court. Which is what they **want.** And Trump has always considered himself a god-king, not a President anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-get-around-the-14th-amendment/1011368/264 "2025-01-23T19:08:56Z")
One good judge steps up > **[Judge says he will block Trump’s ‘blatantly unconstitutional’ executive order...](https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/23/politics/birthright-citizenship-lawsuit-hearing-seattle/index.html)** > > A federal judge said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship was “blatantly unconstitutional,” and that he was issuing a temporary restraining order to block it. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-get-around-the-14th-amendment/1011368/265 "2025-01-23T19:19:23Z")
This will be the norm for the next four years. Trump will keep thinking that executive orders are the same thing as royal edicts, and judges will keep slapping them down. It’s a complete waste of everyone’s time. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2025, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-get-around-the-14th-amendment/1011368/266 "2025-01-23T19:20:02Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > This will be the norm for the next four years. Trump will keep thinking that executive orders are the same thing as royal edicts, and judges will keep slapping them down. I Let’s hope the guardrails remain in place. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-get-around-the-14th-amendment/1011368/267 "2025-01-24T01:51:09Z")
If the EO is “blatantly unconstitutional” (which I strongly believe) why only a pause in the order? Of course this is headed where we all knew it would- the Supreme Court Republicans Of The United Maga States. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-get-around-the-14th-amendment/1011368/268 "2025-01-24T02:19:05Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > If the EO is “blatantly unconstitutional” (which I strongly believe) why only a pause in the order? Because it takes time to hold the hearing which will determine whether the order gets put on hold until after the full case plays out. We’re still at the “preliminary injuction” phase of the process here. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-get-around-the-14th-amendment/1011368/269 "2025-01-24T22:41:30Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > Although that now makes me wonder: under the EO, what would be the status of a child born to, say, two H-1B visa-holders who are in the US temporarily, but potentially for \*years? Kids can’t inherit H-1B status. Shouldn’t that make the child undocumented, and thus subject to removal/deportation, unless and until the parents apply for and receive a derivative visa (which could take years)? I’m pretty sure that visa processing could be sped up for children born in the US who are not citizens at birth (could even be made basically automatic) . The problem will come in 21 years, when the first bunch of dependents who weren’t born US citizens have to deport themselves to a country they don’t know. Or actually sooner than that, when people from other countries either refuse to come to the US or refuse to stay longer than a few years. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-get-around-the-14th-amendment/1011368/270 "2025-01-24T22:58:53Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > I’m pretty sure that visa processing could be sped up for children born in the US who are not citizens at birth (could even be made basically automatic) . Nothing involving immigration is fast. I mean, the nominal processing time of a few months is lightning fast compared to how long it takes to process most applications. But if Trump 1.0 is any predictor, I think it’s safe to anticipate a significant increase in processing times, even for what should be relatively straightforward applications. I mean, it’s the enforcement actions against undocumented immigrants that get the headlines, but there is still plenty of terrible or just inconvenient nonsense going on when it comes to legal immigration as well. It just doesn’t get the press coverage, from either the left or the right. Worth remembering that while fascists might campaign on making the trains run on time, reality tends to be the opposite. It’s just that they do so many other things that are so much worse than mere delays to train schedules that we forget that (in terms of historical memory). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-get-around-the-14th-amendment/1011368.md?page=13)