[Pontiac]

[The Wong] decision at no point addressed, either explicitly—the word “illegal” is not used in the opinion—or implicitly, the legal status of the children born in the United States of illegal aliens. Rather, that case dealt explicitly with the common situation where the plaintiff was the child of lawful permanent aliens in the United States who had long engaged in a lawful business and were denied the right to become citizens under the Chinese Exclusion statute. The gist of Justice Horace Gray’s opinion was that their son could not be barred from a return to the United States because, as the child of lawful residents, he consistently held and asserted U.S. citizenship from birth, which was rightly awarded as an incentive for these individuals to strengthen their allegiance to this country.

Why not just start with the fact that Wong Kim Ark was wrongly decided.

The Constitution confers on Congress the power to establish Uniform Rules for Naturalization not on the Supreme Court.

Not only did the Court step on the powers of Congress they ground their heal in the face of California that forbid the Chinese citizenship.

As the child of foreign nationals Wong was not Subject to the Jurisdiction of the United States but was subject to the jurisdiction of China. So the Court was also stepping on the rights of China.

To put it plainly Wong Kim Ark was an unlawful decision made on flimsy feel good reasoning.

Then we can bring up the very targeted purpose of the 14th Amendment.

The 14th was written for the sole purpose of granting citizenship to freed slaves and ensuring that they would be granted equal rights under the law.

The Court using the amendment to expand its reach beyond freed slaves in judicial activism pure and simple.

[Regulator]

You’re correct.

Worse, Horace Gray essentially reversed himself from his previous citizenship decisions.

It indeed was a “feel good” decision. Probably influenced by the emerging politics of the time.

There are specific points that can be used to reverse Ark, and we don’t have to delve into poorly worded statements by Jacob Howard.

So it’s going to be up to Pope Roberts to thread the needle. But my guess is that he punts to Congress.