On Jan. 20, Donald Trump was sworn into office where he promised to faithfully execute the duties of the office and “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” to the best of his ability. After conspicuously choosing not to place his hand on the Bible during the oath, he chose to violate it immediately.
Trump signed an executive order trying to end birthright citizenship, which is a right that is guaranteed in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. In 1898 U.S. vs Wong Kim Ark, the Supreme Court ruled that children born in the U.S. of immigrant parents automatically become citizens. The court ruled then and in many subsequent cases that “no plausible distinction with respect to 14th Amendment ‘jurisdiction’ can be drawn between resident immigrants whose entry into the United States was lawful, and resident immigrants whose entry was unlawful.” In plain terms, as long as the law of the state applies to a person, that person is within that jurisdiction. If immigrants are not in the jurisdiction of the law, they cannot be prosecuted for crimes they commit while in the U.S.
Within the Constitution are two provisions that allow changes to the Constitution, either two-thirds majority vote in Congress or by passage in three-quarters of state conventions. Trying to change the Constitution by executive order is completely unlawful, according to the Constitution. This is a blatant attempt to overstep the power of the presidency. And this is not just a one-off example.
Inspectors general are supposed to be independent watchdogs that prevent corruption and unlawful operations in their parent agency. After Trump suspiciously fired and replaced many inspectors general and replaced them with those he deemed loyalists during his first presidential term, Congress passed a law requiring a president to provide notice to Congress for the reasons of removal, which includes “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons” 30 days before an inspector general can be removed. Upon taking office Trump fired at least 17 inspectors general without regard to the law. He did not try to argue against the scope or legality of the law passed by Congress.
Should a president have unilateral power to negate all previous laws by Congress and rulings by the Supreme Court to further reinterpret the Constitution through executive order? If this is the precedent that is set, there is nothing stopping the next liberal president from reinterpreting the Second Amendment and ending lawful gun ownership in the U.S.
Ben Mullen
Saugus
