Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ended its term with a bang. Following big wins that ended racial gerrymandering, made “temporary protected status” temporary, protected girls from being forced to compete against boys, and reaffirmed the president’s ability to fire agency heads at will, the Roberts Court struck a blow to national sovereignty by finding birthright citizenship in the penumbra of the Fourteenth Amendment. In doing so, Roberts cheapened American citizenship by automatically extending it to every child of an illegal alien, birth tourist, and foreign spy born on American soil.
The silver lining is that it was a 5-4 decision (6-3 if you count Kavanaugh’s attempt to separate the statutory question from the constitutional one). Replace Roberts or one of the Democratic appointed judges with someone in the mold of Alito and Thomas, and the absurdity of birthright citizenship can be tossed on the judicial ash heap along with Dred Scott, Plessy, and Roe.
Of course, such replacements are easier said than done. It’s a political commonplace that Democratic presidents never miss on judicial appointments. They always successfully appoint progressive ideologues who consistently rule based on progressive outcomes, regardless of original intent, constitutional standards, natural law, common sense, or any other restraint.
Republicans, on the other hand, are consistently 50-50 in appointing justices who will consistently abide by the original intent of the Constitution. Reagan gave us Scalia (and elevated Rehnquist to Chief Justice), but also gave us Kennedy and O’Connor. Bush Sr. gave us Thomas, but also Souter. George W. Bush gave us Alito, but also Roberts. Trump’s appointments have shown themselves to be a mixed bag (Gorsuch gave us Bostock, and Barrett has now sided with the progressives in Trump v. Barbara and Watson v. RNC).
Nevertheless, overturning birthright citizenship is far nearer than many thought or expected, with many commentators originally expecting Trump’s executive order to be overturned 7-2 or even 9-0.
In the meantime, the Court’s decision does have political ramifications, and it is important for Christians and conservatives of all stripes to be clear on them. Doing so requires clarity about the Left’s aims. Elsewhere, I’ve described the Left’s three-pronged path to permanent political power.
First, expand and harness the administrative welfare state–from welfare to healthcare, from entitlements to NGO’s–turning it into a slush fund to reward client groups. This creates a self-reinforcing “vote farm”: funds are confiscated from taxpayers, redistributed to supporters, and partially recycled as campaign contributions.
Second, accelerate mass immigration to import new dependent client groups. Originally, the plan was long-term demographic transformation via bipartisan amnesty and birthright citizenship. When Trump killed the GOP’s appetite for amnesty, the Biden administration opened the border, abused refugee and protected-status programs, and released millions of migrants into sanctuary cities and states, integrating them into the coalition through welfare benefits.
Third, exploit lax voting rules in blue cities and states. Democrats have realized that they don’t actually need to persuade voters; they just need to chase ballots. Flood blue cities in states without voter ID requirements with early, absentee, and mail-in ballots, and then harvest them en masse in order to win close elections in swing states and maintain an iron grip on power in blue states.
The goal is a tipping point where traditional American voters become irrelevant because the left has chased enough of them to Florida and Texas and has bought enough new clients with taxpayer money. At that point, the left can pursue their agenda unhindered, as in California, Illinois, and New York.
This is the left’s path to permanent power: Bloat to bribe the base. Import immigrants to plunder the purse. Flood cities with ballots and harvest them in the days, weeks, and months leading up to (and after!) election day.
Thus, birthright citizenship for illegal aliens and foreign tourists is core to the Left’s long-term strategy of replacement migration. They are playing a generational game, and it’s vital that conservatives recognize it and work to counteract it.
Incidentally, this is why, contrary to some conservative commentators, SCOTUS’s decision in the birthright case is not simply a reaffirmation of the status quo that we’ve had for over 100 years. De facto birthright citizenship through negligence has given way to de jure citizenship with intention (and no legislative or executive remedy). And it has done so on the far side of Biden’s enablement of mass illegal migration (not to mention on the far side of systematic birth tourism on the part of the Chinese government). Both of these heighten the stakes and make the legal rationalizations put forth by Roberts (and supported by Barrett) all the more insidious.
So then, what is to be done?
First, it’s vital to recognize that immigration has become even more central to our politics. Federal elections in particular are even more existential, since it is abundantly clear that the Democratic Party has no brakes when it comes to opening our borders. They want to turn every city into New York City, which is currently run by a foreign-born, Islamic Democratic Socialist.
Many conservatives have been encouraged by originalist Supreme Court decisions over the last 20+ years. Gun rights were preserved in Heller, free speech in Citizens United. We overturned Roe, ended racial discrimination through affirmative action, and overruled Chevron deference. Religious liberty and conscience rights have been repeatedly upheld and strengthened by the Court’s conservative majority. In the recent session, the Court found its footing and began to push back on the trans-insanity by preserving women’s sports.
Every one of those decisions is at risk if the Left succeeds in importing a replacement population and securing them as client classes through the bureaucratic slush funds that operate in every blue state. They want a court filled with the likes of Sotomayor, Ginsburg, and Jackson, who will not hesitate to impose every leftist fantasy on the American people. In short, every conservative win of the last forty years will be undone if we don’t address immigration, because replacement migration is the Left’s core strategy to acquire and retain permanent political power.
Second, the Trump administration must continue to carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in history. Close every loophole. Expedite the process. Consult and implement as many of the policies in the Mass Deportation Coalition Playbook as possible. Get creative. Necessity is the mother of invention, and there is a great need for more deportations.
Third, we must move beyond stopping and deporting illegal immigrants and instead drastically reduce legal immigration. America’s ability to absorb and assimilate immigrants has frequently been tied to periods of very restricted immigration. The prime years of Ellis Island immigration (1900-1915) were immediately followed by 40 years of very limited immigration, allowing time for America to reconstitute itself as a people. (And contrary to some popular myths, Ellis Island immigration did fundamentally transform the country by shifting our politics permanently to the left).
Fourth, in order to accomplish the latter, we need better Republican leaders. Republican voters, especially in red states, must demand that their senators, representatives, governors, and state legislators muster the will to follow through on their campaign rhetoric around immigration. We need more senators like Eric Schmitt (MO), Tom Cotton (AR), and Jim Banks (IN), and more representatives like Brandon Gill (TX) and Andy Ogles (TN).
To that end, ending birthright citizenship ought to become a litmus test in Republican politics, just like protecting gun rights, religious liberty, and unborn lives. Politicians who oppose it should be defeated in primaries. Moderates should be scared back into line. Originalist judges should be evaluated based on it. Do they follow the originalist reasoning that marks Thomas and Alito, or the respectable rationalizing of Roberts?
Finally, it’s vital that red states prepare for the looming political restructuring that will take place after the 2030 census. The Great Sort continues as productive members of blue states flee the left’s destructive policies for red states like Florida, Idaho, Texas, Tennessee, and South Carolina. The next census and reapportionment will increase the political power of red states in every respect. Thus, the most immediately pressing issue in every state where Americans are moving is election integrity (Seth Keshel’s substack and book on the subject are very helpful). Clean up the voter rolls. Mandate Voter ID and paper ballots. Restrict mail-in voting. Ban ballot-harvesting. Every red state should seek to institute reforms and run elections like Florida.
In sum, while the birthright citizenship case is a short-term loss for originalism and for the nation, opportunities abound. Gay race communists are dragging the Democratic Party even farther left into moral and economic insanity, alienating normies and providing an opening for greater clarity and boldness. The Trump administration has shifted the Overton Window on a host of issues, and there are actual leaders emerging on the Right.
So as we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, this is no time for blackpilling. There is a lot of ruin left in this nation. No use whining. Get busy winning.
