SCOTUS Reversing Birthright Citizenship Would Be An 'Extraordinary' Move: Constitutional Lawyer

Constitutional lawyer Jeff Lewis joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss the Supreme Court potentially reversing birthright citizenship.

Transcript

00:00A lot of the media and social commentary I've seen around this case is focusing on the actual

00:06question of birthright citizenship and the legality under constitutional law. Were there

00:11any questions today from any of the justices that hit at the heart of that issue? No, none of these

00:17justices wanted to tackle that question because they know it's a loser. It's a loser for the

00:22Trump administration. And none of the justices wanted to even touch it. And Maggie, I will buy

00:26you lunch if the opinion issued in this case deals with the citizenship question directly.

00:33And you say that because there's constitutional protection for birthright citizenship, and it

00:38almost is, I don't put words in your mouth, but some of what I have been seeing in commentary,

00:42admittedly on the more progressive side, is saying there's no way we can reconsider this. It is the

00:48law of the land. Is that what you would say? Most people, even the conservative folks and the liberal

00:55folks, agree that this view of the Constitution and its amendments has been around for so long

01:03that to disturb it at this juncture, at this late juncture, would be extraordinary. As extraordinary

01:09as it was reversing Roe v. Wade in light of how long Roe v. Wade was around. And so it's that

01:15longstanding respect for the 14th Amendment that I think is going to compel these justices to leave

01:22it alone. Is there any argument or case to be made that the time in which the 14th Amendment

01:30was written is a different time than we are in now, and therefore the 14th Amendment should be

01:36revisited? Does that argument hold water? Yeah, that's the precise argument advanced by

01:42the Trump administration. It's interesting because typically conservatives and Justice Thomas will look

01:48at the plain text of the Constitution or amendments. And the plain text seems to suggest that anyone

01:54born here is a citizen and that you have to go through the history and what was happening to the

02:00country at the time it was passed to contradict that plain text. And that's not typically an argument

02:05you see conservative justices advancing.