Sam Breidbart

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Constitution's grant of birthright citizenship was limited to "newly freed slaves and their children."

This 🧵⬇️from @sam-breidbart.bsky.social explains how the amicus brief from @marthasjones.bsky.social and @katemasur.bsky.social demolishes that argument...

Historians’ Amicus Brief in Trump v. Barbara Two historians and professors of legal history represented by Kendall Brill & Kelly LLP have filed a brief supporting a challenge to President Trump’s executive order purporting to end birthright citi...

Worth the read: historians in action. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

Martha S. Jones (2013 ACLS Fellow) and Kate Masur (2020 Charles A. Ryskamp Research Fellow) have submitted a historians’ amicus brief in Trump v. Barbara.

Learn more about scholars working to increase public understanding and inform policymakers on birthright citizenship: bit.ly/4pz9XEk

Amicus briefs aren't just court filings. The best are compact and compelling reads from leading scholars on the biggest issues of the day... and they're FREE!

All of which is to say, check out the latest from @marthasjones.bsky.social and @katemasur.bsky.social on birthright citizenship ⬇️...

Trump's Iran Strikes Are Unconstitutional Congress must act.

Trump's "massive and ongoing operation" against Iran is a clear violation of the Constitution's separation of powers.

In our democracy, the president does not have the kingly power to plunge the nation into war without democratic debate and sanction. /1 www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to decide when the nation goes to war. President Trump’s strikes on Iran are flatly unconstitutional. There’s been no deliberation, no vote, no clear justification. This is a flagrant abuse of executive power.

NEW: Profs. Martha Jones and @brennancenter.org Historians Council Member Kate Masur filed an amicus brief in the upcoming Supreme Court case involving Trump’s attempt to unconstitutionally strip birthright citizenship 🧵

Historians’ Amicus Brief in Trump v. Barbara Two historians and professors of legal history represented by Kendall Brill & Kelly LLP have filed a brief supporting a challenge to President Trump’s executive order purporting to end birthright citi...

« The historians’ brief — authored by Professor Martha S. Jones and Professor Kate Masur — centers on the pre–Civil War advocacy of free Black Americans for a broad and inclusive principle of birthright citizenship. » www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

Always read @janemanners.bsky.social

"The framers [of the 14th Amendment] constitutionalized the universal view of birthright citizenship that free Black Americans advanced and the common law guaranteed."

@marthasjones.bsky.social and @katemasur.bsky.social provide a powerful history lesson in the form of a legal brief

This 100%. The brief serves as a reminder that history -- and its meaning -- need not be ceded to originalists. Non-originalist history -- history from novel sources, or which focuses less on meaning than practice, text than context -- can play both a strategic and substantive role in litigation.

Here’s the link to Martha Jones and Kate Masur’s powerful amicus brief which leaves no doubt: Trump’s assault on birthright citizenship is unconstitutional

www.brennancenter.org/media/15301/...

2/Read it in full to understand how historians can develop a method in legal history that is respectful about how historians can broaden how we see and understand constitutional law.

1/ @marthasjones.bsky.social and @katemasur.bsky.social have drafted a seminal brief: (a) that centers Black American beliefs on birthright citizenship and (b) uses a set of primary sources, such as speeches and Colored Conventions, fought for (and won) broad birthright citizenship for everyone.

Trump, seeking executive power over elections, is urged to declare emergency Activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a draft executive order that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.

Today @washingtonpost.com reported activists are urging Trump to declare an emergency based on claims of Chinese interference in the 2020 election and use emergency powers to dramatically alter election rules. Trump has no power to run elections, even in an emergency. 🧵

Today @marthasjones.bsky.social & Historians Council Member @katemasur.bsky.social filed a brief in the SCOTUS case challenging President Trump’s birthright citizenship order. Jones and Masur debunk the claim the 14th Amendment applies only to “newly freed slaves.”

@marthasjones.bsky.social @katemasur.bsky.social

Historians’ Amicus Brief in Trump v. Barbara Two historians and professors of legal history represented by Kendall Brill & Kelly LLP have filed a brief supporting a challenge to President Trump’s executive order purporting to end birthright citi...

Read more here: www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

But as the brief concludes, the 14th Amendment was conceived so he cannot do this.

Trump is trying to reopen a settled question and to bring us back to the rule of Dred Scott that the 14th Amendment repudiated. He wants to allow the definition of citizenship to be subject to the whims of political leaders.

The Framers of the 14A took up the ideas of free Black Americans, aware that a universal definition of birthright citizenship would allow for no exceptions, regardless of a child’s parentage. Indeed, they knew it would apply to the children of immigrants, too, rejecting anti-nativist politics.

The politics of birthright citizenship are not new, but the 14A settled the question once and for all.

They sought a definition of birthright citizenship that applied to all, understanding that any carveouts would be abused by political authorities. They knew this from experience: this was the time of Dred Scott when the Supreme Court tried to create just such carveouts.

This is false. The broad guarantee of the 14A in fact built on the advocacy of free, unenslaved Black Americans, who from the early days of the Republic had pushed for birthright citizenship as a declaration of their belonging and a bulwark against removal from this country.

The brief debunks Trump’s repeated claim that the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship was narrow, meant only to apply to newly freed slaves.

NEW: Profs. Martha Jones and @brennancenter.org Historians Council Member Kate Masur filed an amicus brief in the upcoming Supreme Court case involving Trump’s attempt to unconstitutionally strip birthright citizenship 🧵

State Law Gives Litigators Extra Tools to Counter Originalism Unique features of state courts allow lawyers to go beyond arguments available in federal courts.

NEW: Unique features of state courts allow lawyers to go beyond arguments available in federal courts. @cisozaki.bsky.social outlines some extra tools state law gives litigators to counter originalism.

"The brand’s plans for a successor are not clear, nor is it known whether Mr. Clean has children to inherit the role."

Powerful new SCOTUS brief from the lawyers defending birthright citizenship (@aclu.org @legaldefensefund.bsky.social @asianlawcaucus.org @democracydefendersfund.org)

As they lay out, Trump's EO is nothing less than an attempt to rewrite the Constitution.

👀➡️ www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25...

Opinion | Trump Can’t Cancel Elections. He Could Undermine Them.

In today's @nytimes.com, I explain why we should take Trump's recent threat to "take over" elections seriously and how we can fight back against his attempts to undermine democracy.