Today's Poll Question: Should U.S. citizenship require allegiance - or just being born here?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Get ready to vote on today's daily poll question at smerconish.com.

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But first, Michael explains it for you right here.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:08)
Welcome to The Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM for Independent Minds.

**Michael Smerconish** (0:14)
Hey gang, happy birthday America. I've been eager to say the word again. Semi-quincentennial, semi-quincentennial, semi-quincentennial. I have a, well, I have a poll question that relates to the nation. I also want to say that I'm immensely proud of the CNN program that will air on Saturday. It's all recorded. It's fabulous. We've been working on it for a while. It's an opening commentary from yours truly talking about the way we're perceived by foreign nations, citizens from around the globe. It's a negative story, contrasted with the way in which they are seeing us when they come for the World Cup. I'm not explaining it well, but it's, I think it's really a poignant expression that I begin the program with. But then the highlight is, I interviewed Senator Dave McCormick and John Fetterman, Senator Fetterman together overlooking Independence Hall for 15, 16 minutes, a conversation about civility and respect. And it's just terrific, and visually, it is so pleasing.
So I wanted to say at the outset of the podcast, please make sure you're watching on Saturday at 9 a.m. It'll replay at 1 p.m. Pray for no breaking news so the show gets to air, because I think it's really cool.
Poll question today, I'll explain it in just a moment. I'm circling back to birthright citizenship and the Supreme Court decision this week. Should US citizenship require allegiance or just being born here? Allegiance or just being born here?

**SPEAKER_2** (1:54)
This is the Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

**Michael Smerconish** (1:57)
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**SPEAKER_2** (3:29)
The Daily Poll Question at smerconish.com.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:32)
A non-scientific social political question, designed to spark broader discussions about current issues.

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Get ready to cast your ballot and leave a rating and review of this podcast on your favorite podcast app.

**Michael Smerconish** (3:43)
Okay, I really don't want to get into the legal aspects, but I'll deal with them, of birthright citizenship. You know that the Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority, upheld birthright citizenship, rejecting the challenge from President Trump. This case called Trump vs. Barbara, held what every lower court held before this one. If you're born here and subject to our laws, you're a citizen, you're a citizen, full stop. He traced it through English common law, through the Fourteenth Amendment, through Wong Kim Ark, if you know that case, from 1898 The president's whole case rested on five words, subject to the jurisdiction thereof.
And his lawyers, our lawyers, because it was the government's position, argued that the children of people here illegally aren't subject to our jurisdiction.
Chief Justice Roberts dismantled that. He said, our laws plainly apply to those children. They're not diplomats with immunity. They're governed by the same rules as the rest of us. And then the closing line from Chief Justice Roberts, Citizenship, he wrote, is the right to have rights. The Framers extended that promise to every freeborn person in this land, and we keep that promise today. And I want to say something upfront. I think that's correct as a matter of law. I am not here, and I said this on radio this week, I'm not here to relitigate the law. I think SCOTUS got the law right. Roberts was faithful to the text and to the precedent. But, the Constitution tells us what the rule is. And the conversation that I saw to advance on radio this week is that it doesn't tell us whether the rule is wise. And those are two different things. And we've stopped asking the second one. So I'm asking you the non-legal question. I'm saying put aside the Constitution.