{"id":2621854,"date":"2026-06-30T20:21:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T00:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/clarence-thomas-shreds-birthright-ruling-that-devalues-citizenship\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T20:22:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T00:22:43","slug":"clarence-thomas-shreds-birthright-ruling-that-devalues-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/clarence-thomas-shreds-birthright-ruling-that-devalues-citizenship\/","title":{"rendered":"Clarence Thomas shreds birthright ruling that &#8216;devalues&#8217; citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fclarence-thomas-shreds-birthright-ruling-that-devalues-citizenship%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2621854&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Justice Clarence Thomas sharply criticized the Supreme Court\u2019s 5-4 decision to strike down President Trump&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/from-immigration-to-tiktok-the-trump-actions-already-facing-legal-threats-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"From immigration to TikTok: The Trump actions already facing legal threats - Washington Examiner\">birthright citizenship order<\/a>, asserting that the ruling misinterprets the 14th Amendment&#8217;s original meaning. Thomas argued that the amendment was intended to guarantee citizenship for those with a permanent tie to the U.S., such as freed slaves and thier descendants, and that the majority&#8217;s interpretation relies on an &#8220;alternative history.&#8221; He emphasized that historical evidence and legislative intent support his view that the 14th amendment did not intend to include children of temporary visitors or illegal aliens. Thomas&#8217;s dissent and detailed legal analysis criticize the majority&#8217;s approach and warn that the ruling devalues American citizenship, contrasting with the amendment&#8217;s original purpose.The case, Trump v. Barbara, marks the conclusion of the supreme Court\u2019s current term.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Justice <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/clarence-thomas\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"1048\">Clarence Thomas<\/a> shredded the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/supreme-court\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"203\">Supreme Court<\/a>\u2018s ruling striking down President <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"4\">Donald Trump<\/a>\u2018s birthright citizenship order on Tuesday, accusing the majority ruling of using an \u201calternative history\u201d of the 14th Amendment and expressing dismay over how it \u201cdevalues\u201d citizenship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The high court <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/4593917\/trump-birthright-citizenship-executive-order-struck-down\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/4593917\/trump-birthright-citizenship-executive-order-struck-down\/\">ruled<\/a> 5-4 that the 14th Amendment provides citizenship to children born in the United States, including those born to parents in the country illegally or temporarily. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion finding Trump\u2019s order, which stated that children born to parents illegally or temporarily in the U.S. were not citizens at birth, was not only unlawful, but unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. Thomas wrote a 91-page dissent explaining why he would have upheld the order, while also ripping the majority\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/4631234\/notre-dame-amy-coney-barrett-college-republicans-birthright-citizenship\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Notre Dame GOP group calls Amy Coney Barrett \u2018absolute disgrace\u2019 after birthright citizenship vote<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/4630861\/democrats-celebrate-birthright-citizenship-ruling\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Democrats celebrate birthright citizenship ruling but encourage proactivity: \u2018We cannot rest\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4630930\/stephen-miller-blasts-supreme-court-birthright-citizenship-ruling-destructive-and-outrageous\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Stephen Miller blasts Supreme Court birthright citizenship ruling: \u2018Destructive and outrageous\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Court today takes the extraordinary step of holding facially unconstitutional the President\u2019s Order excluding from citizenship the children of foreign temporary visitors and illegal aliens,\u201d Thomas <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/25pdf\/25-365_4hdj.pdf\">said<\/a>. \u201cIn doing so, the Court adds to the sad history of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed and understood to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/matt-gaetz-proposes-trump-tucker-ticket\/\" title=\"Gaetz suggests Trump-Tucker ticket\">secure equal rights<\/a> for the freed blacks but has instead been repurposed for political projects that the Reconstruction Congress did not support. Because many potential applications of the President\u2019s Order are consistent with the original public meaning of the Citizenship Clause, I respectfully dissent.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-15\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thomas\u2019s opinion began with a discussion of the legal definition of \u201cdomiciled,\u201d a key word in the constitutional amendment in question, which he described as the \u201clegal word\u201d for where someone\u2019s home is.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCitizens were not the people who were temporarily passing through a territory or who happened to be born within it. Citizens were the permanent members of the body politic \u2014 the people whose roots were in a place, who called that place home, and who would, if necessary, go to war for that place. The law of both state and national citizenship reflected this principle. Domicile was critical for state citizenship,\u201d Thomas wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He then described in detail the history of birthright citizenship leading up to the 14th Amendment, including the infamous <em>Dred Scott<\/em> decision, which ruled that black slaves were not citizens and which was later overturned by the 14th Amendment, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and previous Supreme Court decisions on the citizenship clause. Thomas then explained how he believes the president\u2019s executive order is not unconstitutional and instead actually upholds the original meaning of the citizenship clause.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-16\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Citizenship Clause was enacted for people who were born in this country and called it home. It was enacted for freed slaves such as Dred Scott, who had \u2018a domicil\u2019 here and therefore were entitled to sue as citizens. It was enacted for men such as Frederick Douglass, who demanded citizenship \u2018not as aliens nor as exiles,\u2019 but as \u2018Americans.\u2019 Its authors and supporters promised, over and over again, that it would exclude the children of \u2018persons temporarily resident\u2019 here, whom \u2018we would have no right to make citizens,&#8217;\u201d Thomas wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thomas argued the majority\u2019s \u201calternative history is mistaken,\u201d and he pushed back on accusations from the majority that the evidence for his own viewpoint is \u201cscant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI see it differently. The Court cites little evidence from the Reconstruction Congress that gave us the Citizenship Clause. And, its other 19th-century evidence is slim in comparison,\u201d Thomas wrote. \u201cAs for the evidence in support of my position, it is substantial. Representative Bingham, the architect of the Fourteenth Amendment, believed that the Citizenship Clause would not apply to the children of temporary visitors. Senator Trumbull, a principal champion of the Amendment, agreed. Jacob Howard, who introduced the Citizenship Clause, agreed. Congressman after Congressman during the legislative debates agreed. Congress in 1870 agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-17\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPresident Grant\u2019s Attorney General agreed. President Grant\u2019s Attorney General before that agreed. The Supreme Court in 1873 agreed. State legislatures agreed. Executive Branch decisionmakers over the course of multiple decades agreed. Justice Miller agreed. Thomas Cooley agreed. A battery of other eminent scholars agreed. And, the great Justice John Marshall Harlan, on three separate occasions, agreed. Once again, \u2018I am quite comfortable in the company I keep,&#8217;\u201d Thomas added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He concluded by accusing the majority of reaching its decision based on its \u201cpreferred rights\u201d rather than looking to the text and history of the citizenship clause, and he delivered a grim prediction for the fate of Tuesday\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMeanwhile, the Court has repurposed the Fourteenth Amendment to protect its own set of preferred rights that the Reconstruction Congress never contemplated and that cannot find support in its text. Today, the Court does so again by recognizing a constitutional right to citizenship for the children of all foreign birth tourists and illegal aliens,\u201d Thomas wrote.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-25\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-4\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI am not sure that today\u2019s opinion will stand the test of time. The Citizenship Clause \u2018added greatly to the dignity and glory of American citizenship.\u2019 Today\u2019s opinion devalues that citizenship. I respectfully dissent,\u201d Thomas concluded his opinion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/supreme-court\/4593917\/trump-birthright-citizenship-executive-order-struck-down\/\" type=\"post\" id=\"4593917\">SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN TRUMP\u2019S BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP EXECUTIVE ORDER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thomas\u2019s dissent was one of three written in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-admin-tells-scotus-to-pass-on-birthright-citizenship-case\/\" title=\"Biden Admin Tells SCOTUS to Pass on Birthright ... ...\">birthright citizenship case<\/a>. Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch also penned their own dissents.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-5\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-5\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-26\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-5\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The high court\u2019s ruling in <em>Trump v. Barbara<\/em> was the final opinion released of the cases argued this term, as the Supreme Court goes on its summer break until it begins its next term in October.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Justice Thomas criticizes court\u2019s birthright citizenship ruling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2638,"featured_media":2621855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AP25036619311482.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[46489,34632,36382,32275],"class_list":["post-2621854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-birthright-citizenship","tag-clarence-thomas","tag-immigration-policy","tag-supreme-court"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AP25036619311482.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2638"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2621854"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2621858,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621854\/revisions\/2621858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2621855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2621854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2621854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2621854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}