We are having the wrong argument about the 14th Amendment. The debate should not center on birthright citizenship (a ridiculous concept). It should center on whether the amendment itself was ever legitimately ratified. If constitutional government means anything, that question cannot be ignored simply because the amendment became politically entrenched.

After the Civil War, Congress did not propose the 14th Amendment and allow the states to freely decide. Under the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 and 1868, former Confederate states were divided into military districts, placed under federal supervision, required to rewrite their constitutions, and told that ratifying the amendment was a condition for regaining representation in Congress.