Well that didn't take long. The Supreme Court barely finished ruling on birthright citizenship before entrepreneurs with the moral compass of a broken GPS started putting up billboards along the southern border advertising birth tourism packages. "Deliveries starting at $4,000," the signs read, because apparently American citizenship now has the same pricing structure as a used mattress on Craigslist. As USA Journal reported, Chinese birth tourism operations are ramping back up, Russian nationals are booking flights, and the entire industry is operating out in the open like a guy selling knockoff handbags who just found out the cops went home for the day.
The 6-3 ruling in Trump v. Barbara held that the 14th Amendment protects birthright citizenship for children born on U.S. soil to parents here illegally or temporarily. Five justices, including two appointed by Republican presidents (which has to sting), decided that "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" covers pretty much everyone standing on American dirt. Trump responded with "American citizenship is not for sale!" and announced he is asking the Supreme Court to immediately rehear the case.
Now, the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868 to guarantee citizenship to freed slaves and their descendants. People who were already here. People who had built the country with their bare hands and were told they didn't count. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito pointed this out in their dissents, noting the amendment was never designed to function as the legal backbone of a $4,000 delivery special. They were, for what it is worth, making a pretty solid point.
Trump's path to a do-over is about as wide as a sidewalk crack. Supreme Court Rule 44 gives him 25 days to file a petition for rehearing, and he needs exceptional circumstances plus at least one justice from the majority to agree that maybe they should take another look. That is like needing the person who just beat you in an argument to publicly admit they were wrong. It happens, but you probably should not bet your rent on it.
The DOJ is not sitting around waiting for miracles, though. A crackdown on birth tourism operations is already underway, targeting the criminal enterprises running these packages. The strategy seems to be: if you cannot change the law, make the business model so miserable that nobody wants to operate it. It is the legal equivalent of not being able to close the bar but making sure nobody has a good time inside it.
Here is the thing about a ruling that results in billboards advertising citizenship like it is a weekend timeshare deal: it tends not to age well. The American public has a pretty clear instinct that citizenship should mean something more than having $4,000 and a plane ticket. Whether the courts catch up to that instinct is another question entirely, but for now the billboards are up, the phones are ringing, and somewhere a marketing team is probably workshopping loyalty discount codes.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
