Judge James Ho Kicks Off The Auditions For Trump’s Next Supreme Court Pick

The conservative Texas appeals court judge is changing his stance on birthright citizenship to appeal to the president-elect.

The audition process for potential open Supreme Court seats is off and running, thanks to the possibility that conservative justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas could decide to retire during Donald Trump’s second term.

First out of the gate is the hard-right Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge James Ho. In an interview with the conservative lawyer Josh Blackman, Ho, who was appointed to his current job by Trump, redefined his position on one of the most controversial issues likely to arise in Trump’s second term — and one of the few points on which he and Trump had disagreed — in order to ingratiate himself with the incoming president.

That issue is the 14th Amendment’s grant of birthright citizenship to (almost) all children born on U.S. soil.

Trump has promised to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants, but as it now stands, that would be in plain violation of the Constitution and of the judiciary’s interpretation of the 14th amendment going back to 1898.

Previously, Ho endorsed the widely accepted view that birthright citizenship for everyone born on U.S. soil, except for the children of foreign diplomats. In a 2006 paper titled “Defining ‘American’: Birthright Citizenship And The Original Understanding Of The 14th Amendment,” Ho made an originalist defense of the judiciary’s long-standing interpretation of birthright citizenship while arguing that the only way it could be restricted would be through a constitutional amendment — a much higher bar than Trump, acting on his own, could clear.