GOP Candidate Bernie Moreno Supports the Unconstitutional Ending of Birthright Citizenship

[Igel]

7. Any suggestion to change the Constitution is on its face "un-Constitutional."

That can be by amendment, it can be by re-interpretation in courts and it can be by subtle redefinition in statute.

I'm okay with amendments per the formerly reasonable process (it's still reasonable, but these days we aren't). I can see how a relatively recent court interpretation could be changed; but by statute ... No.

You find a new "right" that hasn't been there for 200+ years, it's not per the Constitution as understood for 200 years. That makes it "un-Constitutional," whatever the SCOTUS du jour or some politician says. You'd think that after 200 years (and more) of pondering the text and the writings of the founders and their argumentations and those of those that knew them and even the courts we'd have a clue. Apparently some think that they're far smarter and wiser than all that have gone before. Some new "hidden truth", secreted, "easter egg" like, in the text, that counts as a the revolution that they've wanted. "Count the letters of the Constitution with intervals by the odd numbers of the digits of pi and you get the real understanding!"

We could say, "Ah, but the meaning evolves and is independent of the speaker." Then whatever (R) say Biden "really" meant must be on par with what he says he meant at the time and in context. I reject that proposition. Intent matters, then-current context matters, intonation matters, taking into account speech errors. The reader or listener is a consumer, not a producer of novel content. With the constraint that if the owner changes his/her/... mind about what the content meant, we can feel free to disregard that change of intent--it's changed, it's not what was intended, clearly. You author or vote for a bill in Congress in 2000 you don't get to come back later and say, "You know, this new idea ... I've supported it for years as people argued about it and I found various reasons to support it, but now I realize that's what I*really* meant when I voted for it , clearly ... Oopsies!"--I mean, after 20 years of ignoring the strongest argument, now that it's brought forward you realize, "Yeah, right, that." Not a novel interpretation at all. v And completely unbelievable.