Washington Post [no paywall] – 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. Over a century ago, Morse was among a trio of thinkers who spearheaded a failed effort — steeped in anti-Black and anti-Chinese racism — to erase birthright citizenship. The Trump administration is reviving their arguments to make its case today, some legal scholars say. 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.

The Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance was founded in 2021 by several Chinese-American lawyers, who having beaten back the Government’s attempt to ban the Chinese communications app WeChat, saw a need for a civil rights organization that could combat racial discrimination and hate crimes through strategic legal action. CALDA has since be- come a leading force nationwide for civil rights for Chinese Americans and for all Americans. It has challenged the harm caused by the Government’s “China Initiative” unfairly targeting and prosecuting Chinese-American professors and scientists. It also challenged the Government’s recent attempt to cancel enmasse foreign students’ rights to study at American schools, disproportionately targeting Chinese students. And it has brought lawsuits against state laws trying to resurrect the racist alien land laws of the late 19th and early 20th century, as well as state laws prohibiting Chinese scholars and students from engaging in paid academic opportunities.