Donald Trump just got smacked down

On Thursday John Coughenour, a Reagan-appointed federal judge in Seattle, taught Donald Trump a lesson. That lesson is Trump canโt defy the Constitution without obstruction. The judge handed down a nationwide injunction against Trumpโs executive order rescinding birthright citizenship, one of the US Constitutionโs most foundationally anchored rights, the right of anyone born in the United States to claim citizenship. The injunction is necessarily temporary as the judge ordered more briefings so the issues can be fully resolved on the merits against Trumpโs absurd order.
โThis is blatantly unconstitutional,โ Judge Coughenour said. โWhere were the lawyers when this executive order was signed?โ The judge noted that the executive order was in fact so unconstitutional that it โboggles the mind.โ
Trump faces an uphill climb, one reminiscent of his more than 60 challenges to the election of 2020. All but one of those sixty-plus suits were struck down, the exception being a trivial point granted about a minor procedural change in voting rules in a single jurisdiction. This time around the road may be steeper still.
Birthright citizenship is enshrined in article 1 of the Constitutionโs 14th amendment, where the meaning of the language is crystal clear: โAll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.โ
It is an irony that Trump should stumble over an amendment that he previously easily circumnavigated. Article 3 forbids anyone who participated in an attempt to overthrow the government, or gave aid and comfort to insurrectionists, from holding federal office. Trump has both participated in an insurrection and given aid and comfort to insurrectionists, and for that reason he is unequivocally forbidden by the Constitution to be president. According to the same Constitution Trump swore to โpreserve, protect and defend,โ every single day heโs in office is illegal. With the help of a corrupt Supreme Court Trump managed to sneak around that ironclad fact. This time even they probably wonโt be able to help him.
Trumpโs DOJ lawyer tried to get around Judge Coughenour by arguing that somehow the children he wants to strip of citizenship arenโt โsubject to the jurisdictionโ of the United States because their parents are there illegally. The Judge asked the lawyer whether those kids would be subject to the jurisdiction of the United States if they committed a crime. He responded that they were subject to the laws of this country, but not subject to the jurisdiction under the 14th Amendment. A piece of hairsplitting bullshit that has been struck down before and will almost certainly be struck down again.
Unlike article 3, article 1 of the 14th amendment has been tested in court many times. Even the most corrupt SCOTUS in history would have a long, tough road undoing 157 years of precedent (the 14th amendment was ratified in 1868). Fortunately the current SCOTUS has failed to do Trumpโs bidding for far weaker reasons.
This, brothers and sisters, is how we win. We win in the courts, we win in the polls, we win in the application of the rule of law and the unequivocal words of the Constitution. We win by mounting a blue tsunami in 2026 that will make the blue wave of 2018 look like a ripple in a mud puddle. Last time we were The Resistance. This time we must be The Obstruction.
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Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.