The Man Called Trump has enlivened the public debate over immigration reform by suggesting that we rip the heart out of the 14th Amendment. He defended his position last night against that noted constitutional scholar, Bill O'Reilly. Pro tip: O'Reilly was the squish here.

"I don't think they have American citizenship, and if you speak to some very, very good lawyers — some would disagree. But many of them agree with me — you're going to find they do not have American citizenship. We have to start a process where we take back our country. Our country is going to hell. We have to start a process, Bill, where we take back our country," Trump said. There is a way to do it, O'Reilly said, in amending the Constitution. Trump also said that he would not pursue an amendment to the Constitution to remedy the situation. "It's a long process, and I think it would take too long. I'd much rather find out whether or not anchor babies are citizens because a lot of people don't think they are," he said. "We're going to test it out. That's going to happen, Bill."

"Who are these 'very, very good lawyers'?" you ask. Well, one of them is that noted resident of the area under his bed, Andrew McCarthy, who has taken time out from his duties, including rousting jihadists from inside his dust ruffles, to give Trump some cover. True, McCarthy abandons his terror of applying "foreign law" to American jurisprudence – while denying he's doing it. Watch him tie a cherry stem with his tongue next! – in order to make his case. And he's amazed that newborns in the country aren't administered a loyalty oath shortly after their first APGAR test.

As the Lino Graglia law review article Rich excerpted demonstrates, the term meant being subject to jurisdiction in the sense of the complete allegiance inherent in citizenship, not in the sense of merely being subject to American laws.

This is another bit of poison from the far-right legal fringe that Trump has managed to mainstream. (Graglia is such a racist crackpot that even Dana Milbank once noticed.) This also requires the Party of Lincoln to abandon the spirit of the Reconstruction Amendments, which are that party's crowning achievements. For a necessary corrective, Amanda Terkel blows the whistle on what's really going on. And, at the time of the amendment's adoption, its supporters were quite clear about what the principle under dispute actually meant, albeit in their own impeccably racist fashion. For example, John Conness, a senator from California, said in support of birthright citizenship that he was:

"…entirely ready to accept the provision proposed in this constitutional amendment, that the children born here of Mongolian parents shall he declared by the Constitution of the United States to be entitled to civil rights and to equal protection of the laws with others."

Old poison in new bottles. Welcome to the campaign of the current Republican frontrunner.

(H/t Richard Bernstein's Amending America for the quote from Senator Conness.)

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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