{"id":147561,"date":"2026-03-30T15:44:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/03\/30\/trump-officials-downplay-guilt-by-association-cite-white-supremacists-as-authorities-in-birthright-case\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T15:44:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:44:52","slug":"trump-officials-downplay-guilt-by-association-cite-white-supremacists-as-authorities-in-birthright-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/03\/30\/trump-officials-downplay-guilt-by-association-cite-white-supremacists-as-authorities-in-birthright-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Officials Downplay Guilt By Association, Cite White Supremacists As Authorities In Birthright Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Complicit is a fun word. It comes from the Latin word complicare, which means to fold together. Trump\u2019s presidential runs have been folded together with the Confederacy in some pretty obvious ways<\/a> that folks, for the sake of staying in good social graces, have done their best to obscure. \u201cYes, Donald Trump was endorsed by David Duke<\/a>, but that\u2019s not why I\u2019m voting for him: I just care about the economy.\u201d But others make it harder to be subtly complicit: a Trump-appointed judge gave top marks to a student who penned a White supremacist Con Law paper that regurgitated Klan theories on what the \u201cwe\u201d in \u201cWe The People\u201d actually meant. It was taken to task for being on the fringe and a bad reading of history, but I argued that its ultimate conclusions aren\u2019t really that far off from contemporary Conservative politics<\/a> \u2014 rising ICE death tolls, Texan murder-buoys<\/a>, and voter suppression<\/a> are culling tactics that whiten the national We.<\/p>\n

The Trump Administration\u2019s confederate complicity comes to the fore again as they try to gut birthright citizenship. The Washington Post<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

Alexander Porter Morse, a Confederate officer during the Civil War and a Louisiana attorney, argued for legalized segregation in the landmark 1896 Supreme Court case that established the \u201cseparate but equal\u201d doctrine and buttressed Jim Crow laws.<\/p>\n

He is again playing a key role in a monumental case to be argued before the justices Wednesday: The Trump administration has tapped Morse as an authority in its push to upend long-settled law that virtually everyone born in the United States is a citizen.
\u2026
The administration is citing arguments \u201cbuilt on a racist foundation,\u201d Justin Sadowsky, an attorney for the Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance (CALDA), wrote in a friend-of-the-court brief.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When pressed, the administration responded with a red herring:<\/p>\n

\n

When asked for comment about relying on Morse and his compatriots, the Trump administration pointed to a brief in which it wrote \u201cthis Court has repeatedly cited their work in other contexts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Nice bait-and-switch, but we aren\u2019t focused on the times Morse didn\u2019t <\/em>make racist arguments, we focused on the times he 1) did<\/em> and 2) that you are using those<\/em> to support your position. People contain multitudes. There might be a journal or two where a certain Austrian gives good advice on brush strokes and attention to line work in panting. But people would be understandably concerned if I started looking to his political writings for inspiration. The Post points out that there were prominent politicians who \u201cdid not have racist views\u201d that had similar views. If that is true, why not cite them and avoid the whole Morse drama? The signaling has to be part of the point. <\/p>\n

The government\u2019s legal theory is that the citizenship clause should not vest citizenship in anyone born to parents here illegally or on temporary visas. The argument isn\u2019t inherently<\/em> racist. As a matter of governmentality, determining who gets citizenship and why is an open question that states have answered in different ways. There\u2019s relative uniformity in the Americas, but you start seeing requirements for citizenship once you cross the Atlantic<\/a>. But as a matter of history, it isn\u2019t a coincidence that there was a racial animus to arguing against birthright citizenship then and now.<\/p>\n

Trump Officials Cite White Supremacists In Bid To End Birthright Citizenship<\/a> [The Washington Post]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Trump Judge Gives Nazi-Sympathizing Law Student High Marks For Rehashing Klan Legal Theory Calling For Minority Disenfranchisement And Murdering Immigrants<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

\n
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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn\u2019t hurt either. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Trump Officials Downplay Guilt By Association, Cite White Supremacists As Authorities In Birthright Case<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Complicit is a fun word. It comes from the Latin word complicare, which means to fold together. Trump\u2019s presidential runs have been folded together with the Confederacy in some pretty obvious ways<\/a> that folks, for the sake of staying in good social graces, have done their best to obscure. \u201cYes, Donald Trump was endorsed by David Duke<\/a>, but that\u2019s not why I\u2019m voting for him: I just care about the economy.\u201d But others make it harder to be subtly complicit: a Trump-appointed judge gave top marks to a student who penned a White supremacist Con Law paper that regurgitated Klan theories on what the \u201cwe\u201d in \u201cWe The People\u201d actually meant. It was taken to task for being on the fringe and a bad reading of history, but I argued that its ultimate conclusions aren\u2019t really that far off from contemporary Conservative politics<\/a> \u2014 rising ICE death tolls, Texan murder-buoys<\/a>, and voter suppression<\/a> are culling tactics that whiten the national We.<\/p>\n

The Trump Administration\u2019s confederate complicity comes to the fore again as they try to gut birthright citizenship. The Washington Post<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

Alexander Porter Morse, a Confederate officer during the Civil War and a Louisiana attorney, argued for legalized segregation in the landmark 1896 Supreme Court case that established the \u201cseparate but equal\u201d doctrine and buttressed Jim Crow laws.<\/p>\n

He is again playing a key role in a monumental case to be argued before the justices Wednesday: The Trump administration has tapped Morse as an authority in its push to upend long-settled law that virtually everyone born in the United States is a citizen.
\u2026
The administration is citing arguments \u201cbuilt on a racist foundation,\u201d Justin Sadowsky, an attorney for the Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance (CALDA), wrote in a friend-of-the-court brief.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When pressed, the administration responded with a red herring:<\/p>\n

\n

When asked for comment about relying on Morse and his compatriots, the Trump administration pointed to a brief in which it wrote \u201cthis Court has repeatedly cited their work in other contexts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Nice bait-and-switch, but we aren\u2019t focused on the times Morse didn\u2019t <\/em>make racist arguments, we focused on the times he 1) did<\/em> and 2) that you are using those<\/em> to support your position. People contain multitudes. There might be a journal or two where a certain Austrian gives good advice on brush strokes and attention to line work in panting. But people would be understandably concerned if I started looking to his political writings for inspiration. The Post points out that there were prominent politicians who \u201cdid not have racist views\u201d that had similar views. If that is true, why not cite them and avoid the whole Morse drama? The signaling has to be part of the point. <\/p>\n

The government\u2019s legal theory is that the citizenship clause should not vest citizenship in anyone born to parents here illegally or on temporary visas. The argument isn\u2019t inherently<\/em> racist. As a matter of governmentality, determining who gets citizenship and why is an open question that states have answered in different ways. There\u2019s relative uniformity in the Americas, but you start seeing requirements for citizenship once you cross the Atlantic<\/a>. But as a matter of history, it isn\u2019t a coincidence that there was a racial animus to arguing against birthright citizenship then and now.<\/p>\n

Trump Officials Cite White Supremacists In Bid To End Birthright Citizenship<\/a> [The Washington Post]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Trump Judge Gives Nazi-Sympathizing Law Student High Marks For Rehashing Klan Legal Theory Calling For Minority Disenfranchisement And Murdering Immigrants<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn\u2019t hurt either. You can reach him by email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected] <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Complicit is a fun word. It comes from the Latin word complicare, which means to fold together. Trump\u2019s presidential runs have been folded together with the Confederacy in some pretty obvious ways that folks, for the sake of staying in good social graces, have done their best to obscure. \u201cYes, Donald Trump was endorsed by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":147562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Chris-Williams-2025-aRrFX8.jpg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}