My friends cheered loudly when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the birthright citizenship opinion, a 6-3 decision. Truth is, it should have been the easiest one.

The words of the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment are straightforward, and the interpretation that those words mean what they say has stood for over 125 years. The more serious discussion should have been about an authoritarian president’s brazen attempt to cancel rights and guarantees of the Constitution by executive order.

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Don Holladay holds a law degree from the OU College of Law. He has taught courses on the federal courts and is a frequent lecturer and writer on legal and social justice issues.