Alaska signs onto amicus brief echoing racist claims about birthright citizenship
“Alexander Porter Morse, a Confederate officer during the Civil War and a Louisiana attorney, argued for legalized segregation in the landmark 1896 Supreme Court case that established the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine and buttressed Jim Crow laws,” the Post said.
“He is again playing a key role in a monumental case to be argued before the justices Wednesday: The Trump administration has tapped Morse as an authority in its push to upend long-settled law that virtually everyone born in the United States is a citizen.”
Alaska is also relying in part on the views of Confederate Morse thanks to the work of temporary Attorney General Stephen Cox.
Cox endorsed an amicus brief in the case that quotes Confederate Morse as saying the 14th Amendment should not apply to children born in the United States to “foreigners transiently within” the U.S.
Here is the amicus brief that Cox endorsed on behalf of all Alaskans.
“Over a century ago, Morse was among a trio of thinkers who spearheaded a failed effort — steeped in anti-Black and anti-Chinese racism — to erase birthright citizenship. The Trump administration is reviving their arguments to make its case today, some legal scholars say,” the Post reported.
The document endorsed by Cox also says the Wong Kim Ark legal case, under which a child born to Chinese parents who are not citizens was declared a citizen, did not deal with parents in the U.S. illegally.
Cox claimed that Alaska is among the states “that face significant economic, health, and public-safety issues” from policies that say babies born to illegal aliens within the U.S. are citizens, though he claims that is not what the Constitution requires.
In a recent budget hearing, one of Cox’s subordinates testified that it costs almost nothing to sign onto an amicus brief.
Cox has signed onto dozens of them since he took the job, pending legislative confirmation, late last summer. He even hired an Outside attorney, who is not yet licensed to practice law in Alaska, to help monitor what cases he wanted to endorse.
But the pace has slowed considerably since January. The Department of Law says there have only been nine cases this year to which Cox added Alaska’s name and none since January 29.
He gave his blessing to more than 70 amicus briefs during his four months as AG last year.