Executive orders don’t trump the Constitution

Perhaps President Donald Trump is appealing to his base voters just before the midterm elections. Maybe he wants to distract from increasing right-wing violence, whether bombs sent to his critics or 11 people slain in a synagogue. It could be more of Trump being Trump, always seeking to change the conversation and soak up all the attention all the time.

Whatever the motivation, Trump’s pronouncement during an interview that he plans to use an executive order to end birthright citizenship in the United States — thus nullifying the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution — cannot be ignored as merely a distraction.

That’s true even as people across the country must remain focused on turning out voters and winning enough elections to provide a check for this increasingly unbalanced president. Whether in barely disguised appeals to white supremacists, his comfort with authoritarian rulers abroad or his seeming willingness to set aside the Constitution improperly, Trump is a leader whose wildest impulses must be restrained. It will take a Democratic Congress to do that, as well as Democrats as governors, in statehouses and as state attorneys general across the country. The election matters.

But a president’s words matter as well, as with Trump telling a reporter from Axios on HBO he believes U.S. policy of birthright citizenship needs to go, calling it “ridiculous.” Here’s what he said.

“It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don’t,” Trump said. “You can definitely do it with an act of Congress. But now they’re saying I can do it just with an executive order.”

Set aside for the moment your opinions on whether all babies born in the United States should become citizens even if their parents are here illegally. Focus solely on the powers of the president and the process through which we in the United States change the Constitution. Yes, Trump can issue an executive order. However, it is unlikely that even this conservative Supreme Court would allow a president’s statement to alter the Constitution. Even legislation from Congress likely would be inadequate to overturn the Constitution.

The 14th Amendment, added after the Civil War, in part was designed to make sure that ex-slaves could be counted as citizens all across the nation. It was bitterly opposed by the Southern states, which had to ratify it to be allowed back into the Union. Its intent is clear. Babies born here belong here.

The text is fairly straightforward: “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. …”

That’s the relevant portion, with the debate focusing on what “subject to the jurisdiction thereof ” means. Obviously, even people here illegally still are subject to laws of the land: They pay parking tickets, taxes and find themselves arrested if suspected of a crime. Still, there has been a small but vocal group pushing to end birthright citizenship for decades. Now, there is a president taking up their cause.

What happens next? Trump could issue his order and the declaration would end up in the Supreme Court — which, we trust, would not throw out the Constitution. He could lose interest, which often happens after random pronouncements. Congress could take it up, whether in the form or legislation or a clarifying amendment to the Constitution. But even GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan does not believe an executive order can trump the Constitution, saying, “You cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order.” That about sums it up. More immediately, citizens cannot afford to become distracted from the election. Vote. Take your neighbor to vote. And then, find a stranger who needs a ride to the polls and make certain she can vote, too. Early voting in New Mexico ends Saturday, Nov. 3, and Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 6. There’s less than a week remaining for a country that desperately needs to regain its balance.

Part of the balance must be reaffirming the values that made this nation great. One of the greatest: The country welcomes immigrants, understanding the ties that bind us are jus soli — a right of the soil — rather than jus sanguinis, because of blood or ancestry. No one man can be allowed to set that aside.