By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole –

Today 30 June, 2026, the US Supreme Court affirmeid citizenship for anybody born here in the US. That right is affirmed by the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution whose words (Section 1) are:

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.

Despite these noble words of muticulturalism, we in America have a madman as  president who thinks the president can over-ride the constitution. He was voted in by the racist, mad and selfish sections of America. He is going after legally domiciled permanent residents and is deporting them even in defiance of court orders. I have heard medical specialists saying he is in the last stage of syphillis (Many doctors disagree although he is showing the same symptoms that Henry VIII did).

I worry because with this president, If a president can go after legally settled permanent residents, even some citizens, why not my children who are citizens by birthright?

It is shocking that 3 Supreme Court judges disagreed with the 6 who ruled against the majority decision.  Not less surprising is that those who fight against the right to bear arms, given by the US Constitution, particularly right wing Republicans, have no qualms about ignoring the constitution in the matter of birthright. Its Second Aaamendment reads:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Now this mad president whose Executive Order on his first day in office in this his second term, has been over-turned by a court that seemed obsequious till now, wants Congress to pass legislation supporting his executive order, ignoring that Congress by itself cannot overturn the constitution. It takes a 3/4 majority vote in Congress and the majority of the 50 states to do the same by an up or down vote. The President does not have to sign it. He is irrelevant but he can try to influence votes.

The divided powers in this federal system has many lessons for us Sri Lankans, serving as a block against many horrible things done by JR and the majority. Power has to be divided in a healthy polity. Power concentrated in the hands of an executive president is bad.

I am amazed that many people even in their limited areas of power, entertain horrible people like Netanyahu, a convicted war criminal, robber and rapist. This is by both Americans and European leaders like they boot-licked Trump at the recent G7. I get goosebumps thinking about world leaders back-slapping and letting Trump act as the world’s leader based purely on the US’s wealth and power.

Imagine if world leaders did something like that with Adolf Hitler! Disgusting it would be and that would have us screaming. But Benjamin Natanyahu is just another Hitler. Yet he is like a hero in America buying him all the weapons he needs for his genocide against Palestinians. That is our tax money. There is no difference between world leaders treating Trump with pomp and obsequy, and treating Netanyahu as respectfully as we do when the genocidal maniac is targeting and successfully killing the Palestinian community, especially its children. The only difference is that trashing Hitler in history books is theoretical, but doing the same to Trump hurts us – individuals and our countries – where it hurts. We lose job opportunities and social privileges if we turn our backs against him in a social setting.

However, I take comfort that a majority of Americans, however small, support an America that accommodates all regardless of color. Many of those standing up protesting against Trump and risking jail and deportation are the better Americans who stand in contrast to many Sri Lankans and Indians who support Trump on immigration.

I remember in 1970 any Tamil greeting Srimavo Bandaranaike was considered a traitor by many Tamils. So were those who attended the opening of the Jaffna Campus. Additional GA Murugesampillai was castigated in the press for washing her feet before her entering the Nallur temple and for running up to stage with a box of matches for Felix Dias Bandaranaike to light his cigarette. Trump is treated as we treated Mrs. B like a hero despite all that he does to America and Americans.

This was not always so. The enslaved Dred and Harriet Scott  filed landmark legal action in April 1846 to sue for their freedom in St. Louis, Missouri. Eleven years later, they prevailed – in the 1857 U.S. Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sandford—arguing that residing in free states and territories made them legally free. The point is they were supported by members of the White Establishment. Legal figures like Francis P. Blair Jr., Montgomery Blair, and Roswell Field provided pro-bono representation and helped move the case to federal court. The Blow Family, their original owners who had sold him years earlier) backed their lawsuit financially. And there were numerous others like St. Louis ministers and antislavery networks, who supported or facilitated the litigation.

Trump has changed America from what it was to an effectively Pariah state where the majority cared (and still do care) mainly about the cost of living. The America that preached press freedom to the Third World is down to some 70+ out of 180 countries in ranking by Reporters without Borders; making it a really Third World country. But the good Trump has done to America is to make many selfish Americans think about equality and support people like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a person of color and a Muslim no less.

There is a Good America and a Bad America. We who are new Americans have a duty to support and help grow the Good America. Our well-being depends on the Good America.