Trump v. Barbara: Suicide by Cop-Out

Trump v. Barbara is a fundamental disaster for American territorial integrity, and therefore for what America is. 

Tom G.K. Swift | July 8, 2026

Trump v. Barbara is a fundamental disaster for American territorial integrity, and therefore for what America is. It constitutionalizes what was previously undecided, and does so in the worst way. In context (given today’s era of mass migration), it basically says that two plus two equals five. In a way, the question at the heart of Barbara not only was long undecided but was necessarily undecided in the relevant period, from 1866 to 1965. This is because it didn’t have to be decided until the era of mass migration arose. Mass migration didn’t become a thing until recent decades, and, in particular, mass illegal immigration from Mexico didn’t occur until the 1960s. The new phenomenon of mass migration, including illegal immigration, is why Barbara is important, and also why it was wrongly decided.

The Supreme Court danced gingerly around the issue of mass migration (especially but not only illegal immigration), in the sense that it failed to reckon with it altogether, or even to directly mention it. The closest the Court comes to confronting the issue is to repeatedly reference an opinion by Chief Justice John Marshall, who, of course, lived 150 years before mass migration inhabited anyone’s living consciousness.

14th Amendment birthright citizenship is an inheritance of the English common law. Back then, the King always needed more subjects because he needed more soldiers for his army. The common law of jus soli obviously enabled this, whatever else it enabled. What we now call birthright citizenship is, in part, the fruit of imperial ambitions. Bringing us to the present, the Court’s analysis of birthright citizenship depends substantially on the role played by “aliens.” But the Court takes no account, as far as I can see, of the current reality on the........

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