A victory for President Donald Trump in the birthright citizenship case before the Supreme Court would not only create a mountain of paperwork for many Americans, but could also create a class of generationally stateless American residents, according to attorneys who have filed briefs in the case.
The legal merits of the Trump administration’s arguments against birthright citizenship aside, the administration’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which asserts that at least one of a child’s parents must be a U.S. citizen to claim citizenship, would detonate a bomb in the U.S.’s legal and electoral system and even make Trump’s top legislative priority, the SAVE America Act, practically unworkable.
