Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Tuesday accused Justice Clarence Thomas of echoing "one of Dred Scott’s core tenets" by opposing the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold birthright citizenship. In Jackson’s concurrence with the majority’s opinion in Trump v.Barbara, she argued that the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause was historically intended to apply to all people born in the United States, including children of illegal immigrants, contrary to Thomas’s position that the amendment was ratified specifically to provide slaves freed after the Civil War with citizenship."Freed Blacks fought for the shared humanity of all people.
And the Great Emancipator eventually foresaw that the only path forward that could prevent a return — in any form — to slavery and race-based subordination was to link the fates of all," Jackson wrote."Of course, the ultimate irony is that for all the talk about the detestable Dred Scott decision, the Government and [Thomas] propose a return to its core tenet.
Their bottom line is that, for certain people, being born on American soil will not suffice to confer citizenship."By invoking "Dred Scott," Jackson is referencing an 1857 Supreme Court decision in which the majority held that people of African descent "are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word 'citizens' in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States."CHINA EXPLOITING 'BIRTH TOURISM' TO GAIN LONG-TERM POLITICAL INFLUENCE IN US, AUTHOR WARNSSupreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on the nation's highest court, speaks at the 60th Commemoration of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing on Sept.15, 2023, in Birmingham, Alabama.(Butch Dill - Pool/Getty Images)According to Thomas, however, Jackson’s universalist characterization of the historical context surrounding the 14th Amendment was unfounded."After...