KURT LASH ON the originalist cases for and against birthright citizenship.

That you can argue both sides of this issue from an originalist standpoint supports my argument, many years ago, that Robert Bork’s support of originalism on the ground that it determines outcomes was thoroughly wrong. There are plenty of other good reasons to support originalism, but it’s not a machine that spits out the correct answer every time, or even nearly every time. It’s just another language for arguing about the law. Arguably a better one (I think so) but still just that.