AG Bird should be ashamed

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird took a shockingly unAmerican action showing complete contempt for the clear language of the United States Constitution.

Our Constitution states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States . . . ” Despite this explicit language, the president attempted to wipe out the provision with one stroke of his executive order pen. The problem, however, is that the United States Supreme Court conclusively settled the issue more than 125 years ago.

All of the courts to have ruled on the executive order have followed the law and the clear language of the Constitution, holding the executive order to be unconstitutional. The first to do so, a federal judge trained at our Iowa College of Law and appointed by President Reagan, specifically called out the government lawyer sacrificed to argue that the executive order is constitutional, noting that it “boggles the mind” that a lawyer in good standing could take such a position before a federal court.

Bird is actually serving to help lead the effort to gut this provision of our Constitution. She should be ashamed. Instead, she will continue to bask in the praise of dark money ads. Worse still is that she has claimed to act in our names as Iowa’s attorney general. As Iowans who believe in our Constitution and the rule of law, that leaves us to feel ashamed. I certainly do.

Mark Zaiger

Iowa City