Complicit
is
a
fun
word.
It
comes
from
the
Latin
word
complicare,
which
means
to
fold
together.
Trump’s
presidential
runs
have
been
folded
together
with
the
Confederacy
in
some
pretty
obvious
ways
that
folks,
for
the
sake
of
staying
in
good
social
graces,
have
done
their
best
to
obscure.
“Yes,
Donald
Trump
was
endorsed
by
David
Duke,
but
that’s
not
why
I’m
voting
for
him:
I
just
care
about
the
economy.”
But
others
make
it
harder
to
be
subtly
complicit:
a
Trump-appointed
judge
gave
top
marks
to
a
student
who
penned
a
White
supremacist
Con
Law
paper
that
regurgitated
Klan
theories
on
what
the
“we”
in
“We
The
People”
actually
meant.
It
was
taken
to
task
for
being
on
the
fringe
and
a
bad
reading
of
history,
but
I
argued
that
its
ultimate
conclusions
aren’t
really
that
far
off
from
contemporary
Conservative
politics
—
rising
ICE
death
tolls,
Texan
murder-buoys,
and
voter
suppression
are
culling
tactics
that
whiten
the
national
We.
The
Trump
Administration’s
confederate
complicity
comes
to
the
fore
again
as
they
try
to
gut
birthright
citizenship.
The
Washington
Post
has
coverage:
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.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.
…
The
administration
is
citing
arguments
“built
on
a
racist
foundation,”
Justin
Sadowsky,
an
attorney
for
the
Chinese
American
Legal
Defense
Alliance
(CALDA),
wrote
in
a
friend-of-the-court
brief.
When
pressed,
the
administration
responded
with
a
red
herring:
When
asked
for
comment
about
relying
on
Morse
and
his
compatriots,
the
Trump
administration
pointed
to
a
brief
in
which
it
wrote
“this
Court
has
repeatedly
cited
their
work
in
other
contexts.”
Nice
bait-and-switch,
but
we
aren’t
focused
on
the
times
Morse
didn’t
make
racist
arguments,
we
focused
on
the
times
he
1)
did
and
2)
that
you
are
using
those
to
support
your
position.
People
contain
multitudes.
There
might
be
a
journal
or
two
where
a
certain
Austrian
gives
good
advice
on
brush
strokes
and
attention
to
line
work
in
panting.
But
people
would
be
understandably
concerned
if
I
started
looking
to
his
political
writings
for
inspiration.
The
Post
points
out
that
there
were
prominent
politicians
who
“did
not
have
racist
views”
that
had
similar
views.
If
that
is
true,
why
not
cite
them
and
avoid
the
whole
Morse
drama?
The
signaling
has
to
be
part
of
the
point.
The
government’s
legal
theory
is
that
the
citizenship
clause
should
not
vest
citizenship
in
anyone
born
to
parents
here
illegally
or
on
temporary
visas.
The
argument
isn’t
inherently
racist.
As
a
matter
of
governmentality,
determining
who
gets
citizenship
and
why
is
an
open
question
that
states
have
answered
in
different
ways.
There’s
relative
uniformity
in
the
Americas,
but
you
start
seeing
requirements
for
citizenship
once
you
cross
the
Atlantic.
But
as
a
matter
of
history,
it
isn’t
a
coincidence
that
there
was
a
racial
animus
to
arguing
against
birthright
citizenship
then
and
now.
Trump
Officials
Cite
White
Supremacists
In
Bid
To
End
Birthright
Citizenship
[The
Washington
Post]
Earlier:
Trump
Judge
Gives
Nazi-Sympathizing
Law
Student
High
Marks
For
Rehashing
Klan
Legal
Theory
Calling
For
Minority
Disenfranchisement
And
Murdering
Immigrants
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s
.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boat
builder
who
is
learning
to
swim
and
is
interested
in
rhetoric,
Spinozists
and
humor.
Getting
back
in
to
cycling
wouldn’t
hurt
either.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected]
and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.