Well, that didn't take long. Hours after swearing an oath to uphold and defend the United States Constitution, President Donald Trump issued an executive order which attempted to rewrite one part of that same Constitution. He did so unilaterally, without any action by Congress. Of course, neither Congress nor a U.S. president is actually capable of changing the Constitution's text on their own -- that would require a constitutional amendment ratified by three-fourths of the states' legislatures. But that pesky detail didn't stop Trump from trying.

Trump's order would (if upheld by the courts, which is highly doubtful) end "birthright citizenship" by putting new restrictions on who would be considered an American citizen at birth. This would essentially ignore (or radically change the meaning of, at the very least) part of the Fourteenth Amendment. Here is the text of Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment, in full:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The first thing to note is how the words "persons" and "citizens" are used. The Constitution differentiates between the two in various areas. "Citizens" are United States citizens. "Persons" are anyone who happens to be in the United States, no matter what their citizenship status is. So the meaning is clear: anyone born in the United States is automatically a citizen.

In fact, citizenship doesn't even depend on being born within the country. A baby becomes a United States citizen at birth if its parents are U.S. citizens no matter where it is born. Children born outside of America are also "natural born citizens" (the test used for who is eligible to run for president). We've had two such persons run in recent decades, in fact: John McCain (who was born in the Panama Canal Zone, a U.S. territory at the time), and Ted Cruz (who was born in Canada). McCain's parents were both natural-born American citizens. Cruz had a mother who was a natural-born American citizen, but his father was born in Cuba and didn't become an American citizen until decades after Ted was born. And contrary to the misguided beliefs of the "birthers," Barack Obama could have been born anywhere on Earth and he still would have been able to run for president as a natural-born citizen (since, just like Cruz, his mother was a natural-born U.S. citizen).

These examples are all children born to United States citizens. What Trump is attempting to do is to remove automatic citizenship from babies born on U.S. soil to parents who are not U.S. citizens. Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment was written to guarantee that ex-slaves could not be denied American citizenship, but the wording of the amendment does not limit it to such a use -- it is a sweeping pronouncement that anyone born in America is automatically an American citizen, period.

However, some Republicans have wanted to get rid of this for years. They have constructed a legal rationale for their position which is pretty weak, but here's how it goes: the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" excludes persons who are not already U.S. citizens. This is patent nonsense, of course. Any person in any American state is "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," otherwise non-citizens who happen to be in the United States would be able to commit crimes with impunity. That's what "jurisdiction" means -- you are subject to the laws of the state and country you happen to be in.

There has only been one truly valid exception to Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment, and that is for children born to diplomats with diplomatic immunity. After all, they are the only persons within this country who are expressly not "subject to the jurisdiction thereof." A diplomat can commit any crime he or she likes, and if the cops try to arrest them, all they have to do is pull out their diplomatic passport and they walk away scot-free. Nobody else within the borders of the country has such immunity, however. Everyone else is equally responsible for following all the laws, whether they are citizens or not.

This is how the courts have interpreted the amendment for over a century. Trump's executive order attempts to redefine this interpretation, since it is designed so that "his administration will no longer recognize automatic citizenship for children born on U.S. soil to immigrant parents who are in the country without authorization, provided neither parent is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident." The order "also bars automatic citizenship for children born to noncitizen parents who are in the country on temporary work, student or tourist visas."

Almost immediately after this order was issued, over a dozen states filed a lawsuit challenging this interpretation in federal court. They will probably get a judicial stay which will bar the Trump administration from following through on the order until the courts decide the constitutionality of it. Following a century's worth of precedent, the courts will almost certainly eventually rule that the order is unconstitutional and thus null and void. At least the lower court and the appellate court can be counted on to do so, but with the Trumpified Supreme Court, it's really anyone's guess what the final ruling will be. They have shown they don't care one whit about overturning long-standing precedent, and they have also shown that they are open to pretzel logic when it comes to legal reasoning. What should be a 9-0 unanimous decision striking the order down is really anyone's guess (sad to say).

The Fourteenth Amendment says what it says. It doesn't require a law degree to read it and fully understand what it means. American citizenship is the birthright of any baby born on American soil, with the sole exception being foreign diplomats' children. That's how it has been since the Civil War. If Trump wants to change that, it's going to require a lot more than just his signature on a document. It would require a new constitutional amendment with the new definition of who is considered a citizen at birth fully spelled out. Three-fourths of the states would have to ratify it before it became law. Doing so would be fully living up to the oath of office Donald Trump just took, even if he would prefer to have the power to just rewrite constitutional sections he didn't agree with. In fact, the states and organizations who are now suing him to stop his executive order are truly the ones fighting to preserve and protect the United States Constitution, not Donald Trump.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant