OPINION:
Many may be aware of Alexander Hamilton’s description of the federal judiciary in Federalist No. 78 as “the least dangerous branch of government.”
But what may have been true at the nation’s founding has come full circle 250 years later: The courts have morphed into the most dangerous branch of government. As charges, judges have become “politicians in robes.”
Nowhere is that charge more evident than in the recent Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Barbara. Five Justices (plus one who agreed with the majority, but not completely) were convinced, based mainly on faulty legal precedent, that the children born to illegal immigrants are automatically citizens of the U.S.
Justice Samuel Alito, in the opening lines of his forceful dissent, captured the present and future danger of that decision: “This is one of the most important decisions in the history of the Court, and in my judgment, the Court has made a serious mistake. As interpreted by the Court today, the Fourteenth Amendment confers citizenship on virtually everyone who happens to be born in this country, including the children of ’birth tourists,’ women who come here solely for the purpose of giving birth to a child and then promptly return home.”
Perhaps the last line of Justice Clarence Thomas’ dissent says it best: “I am not sure that today’s opinion will stand the test of time. The Citizenship Clause added greatly to the dignity and glory of American citizenship. Today’s opinion devalues that citizenship.”
I, along with millions of Americans, concur.
VINCENT CHIARELLO
Reston, Virginia
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