Analysis: Kavanaugh's Birthright Citizenship Opinion Lacks Coherence and Takes Extreme Position
By
Matt Ford
Summary
The article analyzes Justice Brett Kavanaugh's concurring opinion in a Supreme Court case about birthright citizenship (likely United States v. Skrmetti or a related case). While five justices took a consensus view rooted in English common law and the Fourteenth Amendment's restoration of that tradition, Kavanaugh wrote a separate 10-page opinion that the author argues is logically unmoored and ultimately reinforces a more extreme position than any of his colleagues. The piece critiques Kavanaugh's reasoning as disconnected from the historical and legal foundations that the majority relied upon.
Source
bskyAnalysis: Kavanaugh's Birthright Citizenship Opinion Lacks Coherence and Takes Extreme Positionnewrepublic.comKey quotes
· 4 pulledFive of them took what can be described as the consensus view.
Americans had inherited the rule of birthright citizenship from the English common law, Chief Justice John Roberts explained in his majority opinion.
Dred Scott v. Sandford's holding that people of African descent were ineligible for U.S. citizenship was a violation of that rule, and the Fourteenth Amendment's citizenship clause restored and entrenched the original understanding.
His 10-page opinion is strangely adrift from rhyme or reason, and it ends up reinforcing a far more extreme position than any of his colleagues'.
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