South Carolina attorney general says 14th Amendment 'misinterpreted'

[Eugene]

Source: The Hill

South Carolina attorney general says 14th Amendment ‘misinterpreted’

by Nick Smith - 03/18/25 7:26 AM ET

• Trump signed executive order to end birthright citizenship
• The 14th Amendment says 'all persons born in US' are citizens
• South Carolina AG says it's been misinterpreted

The Supreme Court is requesting responses from states and groups challenging President Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship.

About two dozen states have sued over the order. They argue it violates the 14th Amendment, which states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” are American citizens.

-snip-

“That amendment was rightfully designed to bestow citizenship on emancipated slaves, which needed to happen, but it has been misinterpreted over the last 160 years to incentivize the ridiculous notion that somebody can come to the United States in the dead of night, drop a child like an anchor, like a boat drops an anchor, and all of a sudden, they have been bestowed citizenship for henceforth evermore,” Wilson said.

-snip-

Read more: https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5199404-alan-wilson-donald-trump-14th-amendment-birthright-citizenship-south-carolina/

[MarineCombatEngineer]

1. Can I get some of what that fucking idiot is smoking?

[BOSSHOG]

5. Dude, let's go drop anchor!

[MarineCombatEngineer]

6. ....

[creon]

2. The SC AG is an idiot.

The letter of the law is clear.

[Silent Type]

3. That's the only way they can attack birthright citizenship. Don't think it will work, but who knows nowadays.

[BOSSHOG]

4. I thought Christian's wanted to force women to drop their anchors

I’ve always wondered what that noise was late at night. Central Americans sneaking across their border into Kansas in the dead of night to drop anchor. Both my great grandparents did that. BUT WE ARE ALL WHITE. Interestingly, my father’s grandfather landed in South Carolina with his family in tow. And here I am, bad mouthing people with conservative values. Gosh if only I were as adroit and dapper as the honorable whatever of the home of the Gamecocks.

[Norrrm]

7. Then that means the Second Amendment can be reinterpreted?

What say ye, SC AG?

[sinkingfeeling]

9. Then Marco Rubio isn't a citizen. He was an anchor baby.

[unblock]

10. Republicans specialize in explanations that only make sense to those who already want the result

If that was the intent, the 14th amendment could have explicitly given citizenship only to former slaves born in America.

But it doesn't say that, and his interpretation implies that the people who drafted, voted for, and ratified thr 14th amendment were all idiots who couldn't foresee that former slaves wouldn't be the only people born in America.

But if you're a bigot who is already convinced that babies born here to foreign travelers shouldn't get citizenship, then they'll latch on to this explanation simply because it serves their bias.

[no_hypocrisy]

11. So according to Wilson's "misinterpretation" of the 14th Amendment,

does that mean if a child is born to two American citizens in Paris, France, that child is French? After all, s/he wasn't born on American soil . . . . .