Jim Banks Just Found the Legal Door Kavanaugh Left Open On Birthright — and He’s Walking Straight Through It

The Supreme Court ruled against Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order last month. It was a setback. It was not a surrender. And Senator Jim Banks just proved it.

Banks introduced the Citizenship Act Monday — legislation that would define illegal aliens and birth tourists as “invaders” under federal law, stripping their American-born children of automatic citizenship. The legal hook he’s using is elegant and comes straight from the pen of Justice Brett Kavanaugh himself.

Here’s how it works. When the Court ruled 6-3 in Trump v. Barbara that birthright citizenship is protected by the 14th Amendment, five justices held that the Amendment itself guarantees citizenship to children born here to parents who are unlawfully present. Kavanaugh supplied the sixth vote — but on narrower statutory grounds. Crucially, Kavanaugh’s concurrence explicitly suggested that Congress could amend federal law to create additional exceptions to birthright citizenship beyond those currently recognized. He didn’t close the door. He left it open, described its dimensions, and essentially drew a map to it.