Schmitt Labels Supreme Court’s Birthright Citizenship Ruling as “Disastrous for Generations”

Senator Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., stated Wednesday that he cannot confirm whether political pressure influenced the Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship. However, Schmitt argued the ruling departed from the original meaning of the 14th Amendment and will have long-term consequences.

Speaking on his show “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Schmitt reacted to Tuesday’s 5-4 ruling that struck down Trump’s order, which sought to end automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily.

Schmitt noted that some justices might have been motivated by concerns the court could be portrayed as overly conservative or face renewed calls for court expansion. “I do think that the court is terrified that they’re viewed as overly conservative,” he said, adding, “I think they’re terrified of it being packed.”

The senator acknowledged the possibility of political pressure but stopped short of endorsing that conclusion: “Maybe there was political pressure here. I don’t really know.”

But Schmitt called the decision a “terrible” ruling that would have “disastrous consequences for generations to come.”

Schmitt emphasized that the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 were intended to guarantee citizenship for children of freed slaves after the Civil War, not to establish what critics call birthright tourism. “When the 14th Amendment was drafted along with the Civil Rights Act of 1866 … they wanted to make sure that the slaves’ kids would be made free, that they were full citizens of the United States of America,” Schmitt said. “They never intended this.”

Schmitt argued lawmakers at the time specifically discussed those “not subject to a foreign power” and stated that Senator Jacob Howard, who introduced the Citizenship Clause, “never believed this would happen.”

He also echoed concerns raised in Justice Samuel Alito’s dissent, calling birth tourism a national security issue. “You literally have right now an industry propped up, this birth tourism, where CCP generals in China are sending their wives or girlfriends to come to the United States to give birth,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt added that children born under such arrangements could later “come back here on their 18th birthday, contribute, vote, maybe even run for office.”

Despite criticizing the ruling, Schmitt noted potential remedies: “There’s a temporary action that the president can take by way of executive order. There’s a statutory fix that Kavanaugh opened the door for that we should walk through or, of course, a constitutional amendment to seal it.”