Birthright citizenship is a right
Minara Helen: Nearly 70% of registered voters said the Supreme Court should preserve birthright citizenship, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
The survey of 1,165 self-identified registered voters found that 69% believe the Supreme Court should keep in place an 1898 ruling that under the Constitution, anyone born in the United States is a U.S. citizen, regardless of their parents' citizenship. Just 27% said the Supreme Court should reverse the ruling.
The survey had a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percentage points.
But the case before the Supreme Court is not a referendum on that 1898 decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which established birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment.
The case stems from President Donald Trump's executive order restricting birthright citizenship, which he signed on the first day of his second term.
Lower courts have ruled the order unconstitutional.
The Trump administration has argued those rulings, along with the longstanding view that virtually everyone born in the United States is entitled to U.S. citizenship, are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The poll is best interpreted as measuring public opinion on birthright citizenship generally, not necessarily on the specific case before the Supreme Court.
Still, the poll showed that 95% of Democrats and 69% of independents said the Supreme Court should keep the ruling in place.
Republicans were nearly split: 42% said the court should uphold the ruling and 53% said it should be reversed. The poll's weighted sample consisted of 37% independents, 30% Democrats, and 26% Republicans.
Seven percent either did not know, did not answer, or identified with another party.
The Supreme Court is expected to issue its decision by the end of the month before beginning its summer recess.
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