Few of President Donald Trump’s new executive orders have caused as much alarm as the one on birthright citizenship.  

That order prohibits federal agencies from issuing or accepting citizenship documents for children born in the U.S. when neither parent is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of the child’s birth.   

Critics paint it as flagrantly unconstitutional, including a misinformed federal judge in Seattle who issued a temporary injunction against it last week. But the new policy fits squarely within the text and original meaning of the 14th Amendment.

For the first century following the 14th Amendment’s ratification, few legal scholars would have batted an eye at a directive like Trump’s. If anything, they’d have been more confused as to why the federal government started issuing passports to the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens, tourists, and “temporary sojourners” in the first place.   

Contrary to popular belief, the law doesn’t say that all people born in the U.S. are citizens. It says that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject........

© The Daily Signal