{"id":793,"date":"2026-07-06T13:13:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T13:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=793"},"modified":"2026-07-06T13:13:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T13:13:16","slug":"the-subjective-originalism-of-scotuss-conservative-majority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=793","title":{"rendered":"The subjective originalism of SCOTUS\u2019s conservative majority"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In 2022, the Supreme Court\u2018s conservative majority held in Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization that the meaning of the 14th Amendment is framed by the law in 1868, when the amendment was ratified.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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But on June 30, in <\/span>Trump v. Barbara<\/span> \u2014 the ruling that narrowly affirmed birthright citizenship \u2014 two conservative justices took notably different views about the 14th Amendment and its relationship to other laws of the time. Those contrasts show the subjectivity that surrounds the allegedly objective concept of \u201coriginalism\u201d in constitutional interpretation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Dobbs, Justice Samuel Alito\u2019s asked whether the right to abortion is \u201cdeeply rooted in this Nation\u2019s history and tradition\u201d and is \u201cimplicit in the concept of ordered liberty.\u201d He answered that question by studying state abortion statutes as of 1868, noting that \u201cby the time of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, three-quarters of the States had made abortion a crime at any stage of pregnancy.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The dissent authored by Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan pointed out that women did not vote or serve in political office in 1868, because the ratifiers of both the original Constitution and the 14th Amendment \u201cdid not understand women as full members of the community embraced by the phrase \u2018We the People.\u2019\u201d It thus criticized the majority for determining what the amendment means for women by citing laws that women did not draft or even influence, and that were drafted without any awareness of 20th-century knowledge about women\u2019s health.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Court\u2019s in Trump v. Barbara, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, also focused on history. The 14th Amendment says that a child born in the United States and \u201csubject to the jurisdiction thereof\u201d is a citizen. The 6-3 majority reaffirmed the Court\u2019s 1898 decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that read this phrase as creating only four narrow exceptions to the birthright citizenship rule for groups such as children of foreign diplomats.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who joined the<\/span> Dobbs<\/span> majority in 2022, disagreed with treating the four-group list as exclusive in a dissenting opinion. \u201cThe original constitutional principles do not change absent a constitutional amendment,\u201d he wrote, noting that constitutional rules and exceptions must be applied \u201cnot only to circumstances as they existed in 1787, 1791, and 1868\u201d but also to \u201cmodern situations that were unknown or unanticipated by the Constitution\u2019s Framers.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He specifically noted \u201csignificant illegal immigration into the United States\u201d and \u201ctemporary visitors who give birth in the United States,\u201d observing that cheap travel, modern immigration law and mass migration made today\u2019s world materially different from 1868.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Alito also dissented in Barbara, criticizing \u201cbirth tourists\u201d who come to the United States \u201csolely for the purpose of giving birth to a child and then promptly return home.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His argument about the 14th Amendment differed from Kavanaugh\u2019s, focusing on the concept of \u201callegiance\u201d as it was understood in 1868. While that argument is history-focused, Alito did not identify any connection between \u201cbirth tourism\u201d and any law, statement or opinion of anyone who participated in drafting or ratifying the amendment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Both Dobbs and Barbara involve the same amendment, ratified by the same actors. But in Barbara, Kavanaugh was willing to consider evidence about modern air travel when interpreting that amendment. In Dobbs, he was not willing to consider modern knowledge about women\u2019s health.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For his part, Alito\u2019s Barbara<\/span> dissent was motivated by concerns about \u201cbirth tourism\u201d\u2014 certainly an unknown phrase in 1868 \u2014 even though he was unwilling to consider issues about women\u2019s rights that were not considered by the amendment\u2019s drafters.<\/span><\/p>\n

The explanation for these discrepancies is obvious. In Dobbs, taking account of what 1868 failed to consider would have pointed the justices to upholding abortion rights, a heretical stance in modern conservatism. In Barbara, taking account of what 1868 did not consider would have limited birthright citizenship, supporting another key part of the conservative platform.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alito and Kavanaugh professed allegiance to originalism in both cases. But their application of that concept was clearly influenced by the end result \u2014 showing that \u201coriginalism\u201d is not as objective an approach to constitutional meaning as the right so often claims. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The reasoning cited by Justices Alito and Kavanaugh in Dobbs didn’t work with birthright citizenship<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[144,208,8,1003,674,1116,1117,1014,729,14],"class_list":["post-793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-14th-amendment","tag-analysis","tag-birthright-citizenship","tag-brett-kavanaugh","tag-constitution","tag-dobbs-v-jackson","tag-originalism","tag-samuel-alito","tag-scotus","tag-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"\nThe subjective originalism of SCOTUS\u2019s conservative majority - Relocation Across America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=793\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The subjective originalism of SCOTUS\u2019s conservative majority - Relocation Across America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The reasoning cited by Justices Alito and Kavanaugh in Dobbs didn't work with birthright citizenship\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=793\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Relocation Across America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-06T13:13:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=793#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=793\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba2572fa1a7a241291fdc36bdae80fcf\"},\"headline\":\"The subjective originalism of SCOTUS\u2019s conservative majority\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-06T13:13:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=793\"},\"wordCount\":727,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/?p=793#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationacrossamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/4e7606f4316b9fdf2431c0157da62687.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"14th Amendment\",\"Analysis\",\"Birthright Citizenship\",\"Brett Kavanaugh\",\"Constitution\",\"Dobbs V. 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