The vote was 5-4 for the proposition that the Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship.
The vote was 6-3 that a regular federal law guarantees the same right.
Kavanaugh is the switcher. He voted against the Constitution and for the federal law. This is crazy because the relevant text in the law is a copy paste job from the Constitution. It’s the same text. Kavanaugh’s position is that the same words mean two different things in two different places, because the federal law was enacted at a different time than the constitutional amendment.
Meanwhile, Gorsuch voted against birthright citizenship both times, but in his opinion he’s pretty clear that children born to parents who are domiciled in the US are citizens by birthright. Domicile means you are staying in the US long term and intend to remain. But you don’t need legal immigration status to have domicile. So that’s not really a Trump-friendly position if you dig into it.
Edit: I meant to reply to the other comment, but I messed that up.
The vote was 5-4 for the proposition that the Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship.
The vote was 6-3 that a regular federal law guarantees the same right.
Kavanaugh is the switcher. He voted against the Constitution and for the federal law. This is crazy because the relevant text in the law is a copy paste job from the Constitution. It’s the same text. Kavanaugh’s position is that the same words mean two different things in two different places, because the federal law was enacted at a different time than the constitutional amendment.
Meanwhile, Gorsuch voted against birthright citizenship both times, but in his opinion he’s pretty clear that children born to parents who are domiciled in the US are citizens by birthright. Domicile means you are staying in the US long term and intend to remain. But you don’t need legal immigration status to have domicile. So that’s not really a Trump-friendly position if you dig into it.
Edit: I meant to reply to the other comment, but I messed that up.