One of the weirdest outcomes of the birthright citizenship ruling is the “sky is falling” response from a raft of “conservatives.” The scare quotes are quite intentional because, well, the core meaning of conservative is the conservation of that status quo and a belief that change ought to be incremental and slow so as to avoid unintended consequences.*
An actual conservative should be of the view that upending a legal and constitutional order that was created 158 years ago, and clearly affirmed by the Supreme Court 128 years ago, should only happen if some substantial change in prevailing conditions had occurred.
And yet, there has been a bit of a freak-out.
For example, Yellowhammer News reports from my neck of the woods: Alabama Republicans blast Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship ruling: ‘Will cause chaos in our country for years to come’.
Chaos!!
Or, via The Hill, Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation: Supreme Court birthright citizenship ruling ‘a tremendous betrayal’ says Heritage chief.
Tremendous betrayal!!
The editor-in-chief of The Federalist:
Not only indefensible, but apocalyptically so!!! The worst case scenario!!!!!
Good Lord, what did SCOTUS do?
Well, they kept things exactly like they were.
You know, the good ol’ status quo.
All of this means at least two things.
First, we are seeing how partisanship and the team sports of it all come into play. Party leadership, specifically the president, wanted X. Therefore, X is winning and not X is losing. These people are just rooting for their team, and they won’t let something so petty as intellectual consistency get in their way.
Second, which is related to the first, is that there is a substantial increase in white supremacist sentiment on the American right. To be direct about it, they fear the possibility of the browning of America, because they think that white dominance is essential for Americanness.
What else is Roberts referring to here?
Why would the continuation of a standing constitutional practice (and, really, before that common law practice) in the US be an “assault on our sovereignty” that would “cheapen…” American citizenship? All I can figure is the fear of Somali and Haitian migrants having Black babies or Salvadoran migrants having brown ones, etc.
The last time I checked, none of that should matter as to one’s Americanness. Further, we have long maintained that anyone could be an American.
As far as I am concerned, the “uniquely American birthright” is, in fact, simply being born in the United States of America.
Let me conclude by restating the bottom line: the Court changed nothing by its ruling. They affirmed what already was. The notion that we have now entered some chaotic apocalyptic nightmare that has changed American citizenship is absurd.
However, I will also state that this freakout does seem to signal a deepening white supremacy within the American right, and that is greatly disturbing.
*For example, if birthright citizenship ceased to be the law of the land, how would any of us prove our citizenship? Our birth certificate alone would no longer suffice. This is no minor thing.
