I don't believe the GOPhers realistically expect to overturn any part of the 14th amendment. They simply do not have the political capital to make it happen and they know it. However, what few people realize yet is they don't really have to do that in order to accomplish their goal. The seeds for ending birthright citizenship were planted from it's inception and the wingnuts intend to nurture that tree with this debate and harvest their fruit in the USSC, which they have already stacked in their favor.
Before I go into this, and someone accuses me of repeating RW talking points, I will say that I unequivocally do NOT agree with any of it, but it is the tactic that will be used by the wingnuts and everyone needs to be aware of it and recognize it for what it is. Many probably think the wingnuts don't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting an amendment passed on this issue, and they are probably right, but we should be concerned about this anyway and fully prepared to fight it.
If you listen closely to what the wingnuts are saying, you should notice they want the 14th amendment to be "clarified", and not necessarily repealed. This word has a definite purpose. From a plain language reading of the 14th amendment, the matter seems pretty straightforward and unambiguous.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
The tricky part here is "subject to the jurisdiction thereof". So what does that mean. To the average man on the street, if you are inside the country, regardless of the circumstances, you are "subject to the jurisdiction", but the meaning of this in legal terms is not so straightforward. It can mean different things in different circumstances. To dive a little deeper into this question, most USSC members and legal scholars use the congressional record to figure out what the intent of the wording was, so context can be interpreted. The author of the 14th amendment, Senator Jacob M. Howard of Michigan, was very adamant that birthright citizenship NOT be applied to aliens, and he said so in the congressional record,
Every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons. It settles the great question of citizenship and removes all doubt as to what persons are or are not citizens of the United States. This has long been a great desideratum in the jurisprudence and legislation of this country.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llcg&fileName=073/llcg073.db&recNum=11On one hand, that would seem to end the debate. Obviously congress did NOT intend to include the children of aliens, right? Wrong. Congress most certainly did address those points during the debate. At the time, immigrants from China were being used all over the US as cheap labor. The question of extending citizenship rights to their children most certainly was discussed during the 14th amendment debate. Some of the members of congress who voted against the 14th amendment were afraid of being "overrun" by immigrants from China, ultimately they LOST that debate and the 14th amendment was passed. I'm not going to post those comments in whole because they are lengthy, but you can read them on the Media Matters sight here:
http://mediamatters.org/research/201007310005Newt Gingrich has been trying to raise this issue since at least 1994, and possibly earlier. The political climate has never been favorable enough until now. I can guarantee you that the wingnuts WILL cherry pick statements from the congressional record and USSC rulings in regards to "subject to the jurisdiction thereof", they WILL cherry pick which legal scholars they will quote, and they WILL try to challenge this in the courts. If it manages to make it to the USSC, I think we all know what the outcome will be.
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