Thread by @fawfulfan

This op-ed by former Trump NSC advisor Michael Anton is disgusting and wrong for many reasons.

But I want to draw attention in particular to one argument he made, because it's a very popular, dishonest argument made by white nationalists. washingtonpost.com/opinions/citiz…

Specifically, the part where he quoted Michigan Sen. Jacob Howard, the author of the citizenship clause, saying: "This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers."

White nationalists take this line out of context to argue the 14th Amendment was never intended to grant citizenship to children of immigrants.

Ann Coulter and other right-wing commentators have also seized on this quote. mediamatters.org/research/2010/…

In fact, they're completely misreading Sen. Howard's quote. He was referring only to foreign diplomats, their families, and their consular staff.

Read the sentence carefully. He wasn't saying ALL "foreigners, aliens." Just the ones "who belong to the families of ambassadors."

Sen. Howard's line was part of a broader debate in the Senate on what the Citizenship Clause meant.

Read the whole debate in context, and it's obvious he and everyone else believed children born to aliens on U.S. soil were covered by the 14th Amendment.

For instance, CA Sen. John Conness made it clear he supported the amendment in part BECAUSE it would allow citizenship to the children of Chinese migrants coming to work the mines and railroads in his state.

And PA Sen. Edgar Cohen voted no because he didn't want that.

There is no dispute among scholars that the 14th Amendment grants birthright citizenship. None.

Even James Ho, a federal judge appointed by Trump and one of the most extreme right-wing judicial activists on the bench, has called Anton's argument nonsense. mediamatters.org/research/2010/…

I don't know what possessed the @washingtonpost to allow horseshit like this onto their pages.

It's not just a racist screed, it's a bastardization of history and constitutional law that is wrong on every possible level.