After oral arguments on Wednesday, the Supreme Court appears likely to strike down President Donald Trump’s executive order denying birthright citizenship to newborns without a citizen or lawful permanent resident parent. A loss for the administration would be a setback to the president’s project of creating a permanent underclass of mostly racial minorities. The centrality of this radical scheme to Trump’s presidency was underscored by his presence in the courtroom, the first time a sitting president attended Supreme Court oral arguments.

Though there is much to be relieved about after hearing skepticism from most of the justices, the very fact that the court is contemplating revising what it means to be an American citizen is chilling. Even if the government loses—and it almost certainly will—Trump will have moved the goalposts about respectable debate and muddied the clear rules that establish a society of equals. Ultimately, the biggest winner may be Chief Justice John Roberts, whose unpopular court would be able to boast that it reaffirmed the promise of birthright citizenship, accruing legitimacy to an institution that has under his leadership wielded its power to erode American democracy.

The case will likely prove to be an example of Trump going too far, even for this court.

The first sentence of the 14th Amendment is clear: “All 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.” Drafted by Congress after the Civil War and ratified in 1868, the 14th Amendment put an end to the shameful era of inherited status that defined slavery. In its place, not only would formerly enslaved people and their children be citizens, but so too would the children of all immigrants born on US soil. That way, never again would politicians or judges be able to turn a disfavored group into a permanent underclass. The only exceptions were the children of ambassadors, invading armies, and sovereign Indian tribes—because those newborns would not be subject to American laws in the same way that everyone else is.

The arguments against this plain reading of the text and history are........

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