CRANCH AND MORE

WORLD CUP UPDATE: Just when all seemed lost, cometh the moment, cometh the man -England's brilliant striker Harry Kane at the 74-minute mark tied the match with CR Congo, and an entire (small island) nation exhaled. 1-1.  

Rest assured we are watching every moment. These Congoians (???) play some tough D- like the 86 Bears or 75 Steelers. 

Happy July 1! We are still around (for now). More on this in the coming days. 

July First is, as everybody knows, Bobby Bonilla day! The NY Mets signed Bonilla to a five-million-dollar contract in 1999 and Bonilla agreed to defer his money until starting in 2011 at which point the Mets have for every year paid Bobby B 1.93 million dollars. The deferment payments continue until 2035.  Not a bad deal.

Here's our take on the 14 Amendment Birthright Citizenship decision. 

First, a ton of history. CJ John Roberts starts with a lengthy exposition on England, the colonies, and who was a citizen and how they became one. Both the majority and dissenting opinions quote a lot from decisions in the Cranch legal reporter, as well as every justice who wrote an opinion quoted Fredrick Douglass, both his books and speeches to support their own reasoning. Recall that the 14th Amendment was enacted to confirm citizenship to Black Americans who had been slaves. Douglass's words about the amendment confirming not conferring citizenship on former slaves are very persuasive. 

Which is why we think the dissents of Justice Thomas and Alito carry the day. Their reasoning that the 14 Amendment provided citizenship to a group of people born in the United States who were domiciled in this country and owed no allegiance to foreign powers simply makes more sense in both the historical and current context.  

When you read all the opinions, much is made of what does and does not constitute the establishment of a domicile- the kind of late-night arguments we envision occurring in the comfy wood-paneled law offices of legal sharpies who work on top of a garage.  So read the opinions for everything you wanted to know about the law of establishing a domicile, and more. 

Now the more reactive and less learned of our readers will react with outrage of our support for the dissents. "How could you say (fill in the blank) is not a citizen?"  They were born here and blah blah blah." 

The more educated readers will understand that our opinion is not an expression of anti-immigration sentiment. We are firmly of the belief that we are a country of immigrants (other than Native Americans) and that we are stronger because of it. 

But on the legal question of whether the 14th Amendment confers citizenship on someone who simply happens to be born here- like in the case of birth tourism- Thomas and Alito got it right (as much as it pains us to say it). Roberts got it wrong, and Kavanaugh punted with his narrow concurrence on a 1940's statute being the reason the executive order was wrong and the reason to uphold the New Hampshire District Court's decision. 

The Supreme Court Term is over, and like them, we are planning our summer sojourns to far flung areas of the planet. Whether we return for the first Monday in October is an entirely different discussion.