Podbit · The Ben Shapiro Show
Roberts traces American citizenship back to British jus soli — the rule that anyone born on the sovereign's soil is a subject. But this logic conflates British subjection with American citizenship, glossing over the fact that the entire American Revolution was fought to reject the British model of sovereignty.
Where this was said
At 12:30 · chapter starts 8:50
Shapiro digs into the actual text of Roberts's majority opinion, beginning with its historical framework: Roberts traces American citizenship back to English common law, where a foreign mother could give birth in Britain and her child would remain a subject forever. The American Revolution, Roberts argues, simply transferred this principle from subjects of the king to citizens of the state. Shapiro immediately flags the central objection — the whole point of the Revolution was to reject British subjection, so equating the two is conceptually wrong. Roberts then moves through Dred Scott v. Sanford, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and the 14th Amendment, arguing that all of these were designed to restore jus soli after its racial corruption under Chief Justice Taney. The key interpretive move is Roberts's reading of 'subject to the jurisdiction thereof' as simply meaning anyone physically present under American law — essentially rendering the phrase synonymous with 'born in the U.S.' Shapiro argues this reading makes the phrase entirely superfluous and sets up the Thomas dissent that will dismantle it.
Ben Shapiro read approximately 275 pages of Supreme Court opinions the morning of the broadcast before going live.
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