How Originalism Will Save Birthright Citizenship: Noah Feldman

President Donald Trump must have come to the Supreme Court for oral arguments in the birthright citizenship case hoping to hear “his” justices inveigh against what he has called illegal aliens. Instead, he heard a lot about the original meaning of the 14th Amendment.

Whether the president knew it or not, originalism sounds the death knell for his executive order ending birthright citizenship. When his spokesman, Solicitor General John Sauer, ended his part of the oral argument, Trump got up and left.

The justices, including Trump’s appointees, left little reason to doubt that the court will do what sanity requires ...