Trump’s birthright citizenship crusade draws backing from cohort of prominent legal scholars

By Fox News · Fox News

A group of at least seven law professors have mounted a campaign to challenge the longstanding interpretation of birthright citizenship, arguing in favor of former President Donald Trump’s effort to narrow the constitutional provision, even as Supreme Court justices signal skepticism. The legal scholars' arguments aim to persuade the Supreme Court and opponents of Trump's efforts that there are serious originalist and historical arguments for narrowing birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment that deserve consideration rather than dismissal as a fringe political theory. Ilan Wurman, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, told Fox News Digital the recent wave of support is intended to reinforce the point that birthright citizenship is not a settled matter despite the institutional consensus on it. "That several prominent law professors have come out over the past year, including a few in the past month, in varying degrees of support for the Trump Administration's birthright citizenship executive order, shows that their position is serious," Wurman said. "The Supreme Court cannot simply rely on the conventional wisdom. It will have to show its work." TRUMP ELEVATES IMMIGRATION FIGHT AT SUPREME COURT, TURNING UP HEAT ON DEMOCRATS AHEAD OF MIDTERMS Wurman, who specializes in constitutional law, was one of dozens who also weighed in on the case by submitting amicus briefs to the high court ahead of April 1 oral arguments on birthright citizenship, which grants automatic citizenship to most babies born on U.S. soil under the 14th Amendment. He argued, in part, that the amendment never intended to grant illegal immigrants’ babies citizenship, saying that in the 19th century, parents who were residents of a country owed allegiance to the country in exchange for protections from its government. "This exchange of allegiance and protection was often described as a ‘mutual compact,’" Wurman wrote. "Lawful aliens generally fell within the scope of the rule, whil…