Legal commentator and retired attorney Mark Pulliam argued the national conversation regarding birthright citizenship has shifted dramatically in recent years, crediting President Donald Trump with pushing what was once seen as a “fringe” legal idea into the mainstream.
Speaking during Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Pulliam pointed to the ongoing Supreme Court case, Trump v. Barbara, which challenges the long-standing interpretation of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
The amendment has traditionally been understood to grant citizenship to nearly all individuals born on U.S. soil, but Trump’s executive order seeks to limit that guarantee for children of undocumented immigrants and certain visa holders.
Pulliam emphasized how unusual it is for such a question to reach the nation’s highest court.
“It’s a long shot, but the fact that it is even before the Supreme Court shows that the longstanding conventional wisdom can be reevaluated in light of originalist legal scholarship,” he said.
According to Pulliam, the issue received little serious attention prior to Trump’s political rise.
“Prior to 2015, when President Trump announced his candidacy for the White House, nobody paid really any serious attention to birthright citizenship,” he explained.
Pulliam recounted that even within conservative and libertarian circles, support for revisiting birthright citizenship was once viewed as marginal.
“I got a lot of grief from people… saying basically, oh, you’re touching that fringy point of view,” he said.
He stressed that the legal debate centers on the meaning of the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the 14th Amendment, originally ratified in 1868 to grant citizenship to formerly enslaved people and overturn the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision.
“Now, through a combination of President Trump raising it as an issue, the fact that Joe Biden made the American public very conscious of the importance of having sound immigration laws and enforcement, and that we have now a 6-3 originalist conservative majority on the Supreme Court that is reevaluating things that had been thought to be correctly decided and deciding, no, you’ve gotten it wrong, I think it has legitimized giving this a fresh scrutiny,” he argued.
In recent years, Pulliam noted, a number of prominent legal scholars have revisited the issue, contributing to what he described as a broader reexamination of constitutional interpretation.
“It’s a chorus of very well-respected mainstream scholars,” he said. “And the fact that President Trump has taken what used to be considered a fringe position and brought it into the mainstream really shows how transformative he has been as president.”
While acknowledging that the Supreme Court’s eventual ruling remains uncertain, Pulliam suggested that even a loss for Trump would not end the debate.
“Even if President Trump loses… there are still ways to fix the birthright citizenship issue,” he said, pointing to potential legislative action or even a constitutional amendment.
He also highlighted Congress’s authority in immigration and citizenship matters.
“Congress could, by passing a statute, fix this… Section Five of the 14th Amendment gives Congress the power to enforce the provisions of the 14th Amendment. Also, Article One gives Congress authority to establish a uniform rule of naturalization,” Pulliam said.
A final ruling in Trump v. Barbara is expected later this term.
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https://t.co/qqagqUdP4G— Michael Patrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) April 13, 2026
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
