My AMERICAN FREE PRESS Q&A With James Edwards On SCOTUS' Anchor Baby Atrocity

"SCOTUS has ruled, however mistakenly, and there are ways to undo that ruling. Let’s get on with it."

Peter Brimelow writes: I’ve recently discussed the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 30 5-4 Anchor Baby atrocity on several different podcasts (Auron MacIntyre, Mike Farris, Harrison Smith, Kevin DeAnna, Tom Woods, James Edwards). All took interestingly different directions. Plus, of course, I had anticipated SCOTUS’ dereliction here.

James Edwards is also a columnist for the American Free Press treezine and he kindly invited me to do a Q&A with him there. It’s off the stands now, so I am free to post it.

I told Edwards: “I think this ruling will backfire on the Left just like the 1973 abortion ruling Roe vs Wade did.”

And there have been a flurry of statutory and Constitutional Amendment proposals introduced into Congress since June 30. But I don’t see much sign right now that Trump is going to make it the main issue in the 2026 midterms, despite my express instructions below. Maybe he thinks the Iran War will do it for him.

Note my subversive comments on 250th vs. 200th Anniversary celebrations. I was there!

James Edwards: The Supreme Court just handed down this ruling in Trump v. Barbara upholding automatic citizenship for children born to illegal aliens and people here on temporary visas. Many ideological fellow travelers are saying this basically guarantees that the invasion of our country will continue indefinitely, no matter what the American people want. What was your immediate reaction and why do you think so many of our friends were so quick to label this an unmitigated defeat?

Peter Brimelow: This decision is a blessing in disguise. There’s no doubt it puts the Historic American Nation into what the Chinese strategist Sun Tzu called “Death Ground”—if it’s not reversed, the U.S- born children of the illegals here (and Biden let in some 11 million) will eventually get the vote and elect anti-white gay race communists who will abolish America.

But the point is that at least the Birthright Citizenship issue is now in politics. When we started writing about it on VDARE.com 25 years ago, almost no one had any idea of what was going on. America was being transformed by stealth.

Some of our friends are shocked because the decision is such a legal atrocity. However, all is not lost. There are fixes. They’re hard, but they are simple.

Only five justices voted to read Birthright Citizenship into the Constitution (where it was otherwise not at all explicit, just as the notorious alleged right to an abortion nowhere appears). So, replacing one justice could flip the result. That’s why Vice-President J.D. Vance said that Birthright Citizenship “hangs by a thread.”

Plus, Congress could try to fix Birthright Citizenship by statute, imposing its own interpretation of the passage in the Fourteenth Amendment that the five justices exploited.

Or it can begin the process of amending the Constitution to end Birthright Citizenship. Which would be a huge fight. And that would be great!

Lawyers often say, “the process is the punishment,” which certainly been true with NY Attorney General Letitia James’ ruinous “investigation” of VDARE.

But in this case, the process is the prize! Democrats in Congress and in every state would be forced to justify the children of illegals and tourists automatically getting U.S. citizenship, and the whole “Birth Tourism” racket whereby foreign women are flown in to give birth, collect citizenship papers for the baby, and then fly out. Americans generally didn’t know all this was going on, and when they find out they get really mad.

I think this ruling will backfire on the Left just like the 1973 abortion ruling Roe vs Wade did. But this time, it won’t take 50 years.

The Supreme Court is not God. It is not Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. If Americans don’t like what it says, they can legislate to change it.

That’s what happened with the Federal income tax. The Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional in 1895. So, Congress proposed the 16th Amendment permitting it and it was ratified by 1913.

And this was for income tax, which everybody hates! Nobody loves Birthright Citizenship, except the Abolish America lobby.

Edwards: You have identified a silver lining, noting that SCOTUS was not ruling on birthright citizenship per se, but rather only whether it can be abolished by Executive Order. Considering that Trump’s EO on birthright citizenship would have certainly been overturned by a potential future Democratic president, could this be a blessing in disguise?

Brimelow: Exactly. I must say it never occurred to us at VDARE.com that Birthright Citizenship could be prevented by Executive Order. We assumed legislation or a Constitutional Amendment would be necessary.

But I’m actually glad that Trump tried to do it this way, because if upheld it would have prevented the Biden Rush illegal aliens’ U.S. born children getting the vote from the date of the order; and also, of course, because it has gotten the issue into political debate. The GOP leaders in Congress apparently didn’t have the courage or the imagination to do that.

If Trump had prevailed on the Executive Order, however, everyone would have all gone back to sleep. And then the Democrats would have eventually reversed the EO, as you say.

A permanent solution is ultimately needed.

I was mildly surprised the Chief Justice Roberts, who ruled with the women (Kagan, Sotomayor, Jackson, Barrett), didn’t try to confine the decision to the narrow issue of the EO. He’s a coward and usually avoids rocking the boat. Ann Coulter, whom I respect, has speculated that he’s being blackmailed. But I suspect that he was just afraid of the female justices’ unbridled hysteria, which in turn presaged the utterly unbridled hysteria with which Democrats would have greeted any threat to Birthright Citizenship.

Three generations of Democrats, going back before the 1954 Brown decision banning racial segregation, which whatever its merits as policy was utterly lawless, have gotten used to the idea that the U.S, Supreme Court is God. And that God agrees with them.

And lot of Democrats react viscerally to the idea that American citizenship is ultimately a matter of blood rather than birth location (technically jus sanguinis rather than jus soli) because they themselves stem from recent immigration. They instinctively recoil from the idea that there was a pre-existing American ethnocultural community — a nation — to which they may or may not belong. Even though abolishing Birthright Citizenship doesn’t actually affect them at all.

Edwards: The 14th Amendment, of course, was passed after the War Between the States by the Reconstruction-era Congress to deal with the children of freed slaves. What sort of mental gymnastics must be put into play to believe that this applies to the children of illegal aliens from the far reaches of the planet?

Brimelow: Well, obviously, it’s a reach.

But, as I say, that’s no longer the issue. SCOTUS has ruled, however mistakenly, and there are ways to undo that ruling if it’s what Americans want. Let’s get on with it.

Edwards: If we don’t put an end to this insane “anchor baby” loophole, millions of other foreign nationals are going to flood across the border knowing their kids will be instant American citizens with full access to our welfare state, schools, and political system. Heritage American taxpayers would be on the hook for the education, healthcare, and eventual welfare of these children who were never supposed to be citizens in the first place. Would this be us subsidizing our own demographic displacement?

Brimelow: Of course. That’s the idea!

But the key thing is to make it clear to Americans that this displacement is what’s being done. The Regime Media will lie about it.

Edwards: In Alien Nation you laid out how post-1965 immigration was fundamentally altering the racial and cultural character of the United States. Now, 30 years later, we stand at the precipice. What hope can you give readers that common sense will prevail?

Brimelow: Well, of course, the underlying numbers have gotten much worse, just as I predicted. On the other hand, awareness of the issue is vastly greater than it was, especially among young men on the Right. So, it’s a question of the irresistible force vs. the immoveable object.

My view is that miracles happen quite often in politics. Nobody expected the Soviet Union to collapse. Nobody expected Trump. I am surprised by how long it’s taken, but everybody may be surprised by how quickly it turns around.

Edwards: What is your overall opinion of the current Supreme Court, looking at its complete body of work since the Trump appointees have been added to the bench, rather than just this single ruling?

Brimelow: It’s obviously vastly better than the flagrantly legislating Leftist Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren (1953-1969) or the Country Club / Chamber of Commerce Supreme Courts that succeeded it. There was a whole missing generation of conservative legal intellectuals and the Federalist Society, because it didn’t address National Question issues, has not completely filled the gap.

Edwards: Shifting focus slightly to America’s 250th birthday. Your colleague, Kevin DeAnna, recently wrote that “Changing demographics mean many so-called Americans have no connection whatsoever to the historic nation and regard its history as offensive, racist, and even evil. Meanwhile, many white Americans, especially those who are young and on the hard right, are disillusioned with the entire national project.” Did the overall vibe across the country seem depressed to you on what should have been an important national milestone?

Brimelow: Well, because of my appalling age, I remember the 200th Anniversary celebrations, and they weren’t as unclouded as people think now. There had been the Watergate coup, the Democrats had handed Vietnam to the Communists, Communists had seized Angola and Mozambique, the Soviets had built a Blue-Water navy, they really appeared to be winning the Cold War.

Frankly, I think the 200th Anniversary looks better in retrospect because the recycled ads and footage that you see now was not infected by DEI casting dogma. Everyone was white. And everyone was white, the U.S. population was over 80 percent white, over 20 percentage points more than it is in 2026. So that reinforces Kevin’s point.

Edwards: On that theme, your family recently attended Trump’s Great American State Fair in Washington, which has been the focus of a lot of media attention. What was the vibe there and did everyone have a good time?

Brimelow: Lydia did go with our daughters to the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, it’s only about two hours from where we live in West Virginia. It was over 90 degrees, so she banned me on the grounds I wouldn’t survive! But they all thought it was great. Despite mean-spirited sabotage attempts by a few Democrat governors, for example our previous home state of Connecticut. She thought the relentlessly negative coverage was just deceptive.

Edwards: Your Substack is essential reading for those interested in America First immigration policies from one of its staunchest advocates. Where can people find it?

Brimelow: You can reach my Substack at peterbrimelow.com, my X and Gab are @peterbrimelow and @PeterBrimelow

And VDARE.com’s X and Gab are @vdare and @VDARE.

VDARE’s soul (if you will pardon the reference) goes marching on!

This article was originally published by American Free Press – America’s last real newspaper! Click here to subscribe today or call 1-888-699-NEWS.