In the flurry of executive orders Donald Trump issued on his first day back in the White House, one stands out — his order outlawing birthright citizenship.

Trump is attempting to prevent the federal government from recognizing the U.S. citizenship of anyone born in the U.S. who didn’t have at least one parent who was either a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent resident at the time of birth.

Trump and MAGA World don’t like birthright citizenship because it means that all children born on U.S. soil automatically become U.S. citizens, even if their parents were in the U.S. illegally. Abolition of birthright citizenship isn’t a new idea — it has been floating around in alt-right circles for years. Trump himself talked about ending it back in 2019. So the order itself did not come as a surprise.

Despite having been around for so long, the legal argument behind this idea isn’t very well developed. It ranges between the argument that the Supreme Court case U.S. v Wong Kim Ark, doesn’t actually say that all children (with a few minor exceptions) born in the U.S. are automatically........

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