All You Need Is A Scapegoat

The Supreme Court noted in its majority opinion that the importance of birthright citizenship was indicated by the fact that it was codified as an amendment, rather than as a regular law.

"The same congress, shortly afterwards, evidently thinking it unwise, and perhaps unsafe, to leave so important a declaration of rights to depend upon an ordinary act of legislation, which might be repealed by any subsequent congress, framed the fourteenth amendment of the constitution," the justices wrote.

[Walter]Dellinger warned that people who want to get rid of birthright citizenship should think more carefully about the implications.

"Today, it serves a very important function, that no one can go back to previous generations and find out that your claim to be a citizen is faulty because your grandparent or great-grandparents was not lawfully in the country," he said. "That's the critical importance of wiping the slate clean."

"If it weren't for birthright citizenship, people could go back and say, 'We found out your great-grandparent arrived at Ellis Island under a different name, and therefore none of her descendants are citizens either,'" Dellinger added. "Birthright citizenship eliminates all of those questions."

From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/birthright-citizenship-chinese_55d33190e4b055a6dab1594d?32mg3nmi

Mr. Trump has climbed on the racist train. Most of the Republican party is already on board, not to mention the people like Ann Coulter who have made a career of bashing "others." It's a powerful incantation in the hands of a capable authoritarian, as we can easily see from our past and the pasts of other countries. Mr. Bush already said that the Constitution is just a piece of paper. The arguments about whether Mr. Trump should at least be aware of what it says are belied by what Bush and others have already done. Just hire a lawyer. Or perhaps in Trump's case, hire a new special police force charged with the round up. Who's going to stop that?

________________________

Update. Yesterday a couple of Red Sox "fans" left the game and the proceeded to urinate on and beat up a Latino homeless man who was sleeping on the street. Arrested, they quoted Mr. Trump. When you start talking about "rounding up" people, you are opening the door to this. http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/were-they-wearing-brown-by-any-chance.html