Far-left Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stunned many Americans when she tried to explain allegiance under the 14th Amendment by imagining herself stealing a wallet in Japan.
The unusual analogy surfaced during oral arguments in a landmark case challenging President Donald Trumps executive order on birthright citizenship. As reported by Gateway Pundit, the discussion centered on the 14th Amendments phrase subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, a constitutional standard that has long been understood by conservatives to involve genuine political allegiance, not mere exposure to prosecution.
In the increasingly abstract world of progressive legal theory, Jackson appeared to collapse the distinction between criminal liability and civic loyalty. In doing so, she echoed a broader left-wing effort to water down the constitutional meaning of citizenship and blur the line between Americans and foreign nationals.
Jackson constructed a hypothetical scenario in which she travels to Japan and commits a crime. Her claim was that if she steals a wallet in Tokyo and is arrested, she is thereby owing allegiance to the Japanese sovereign.
If I steal someones wallet in Japan, the Japanese authorities can arrest me and prosecute me. Its allegiance, meaning can they control you as a matter of law? Jackson posited. So theres this relationship based on even though Im a temporary traveler Im still locally owing allegiance in that sense. By equating the power to punish a crime with the deep, enduring duty of loyalty that citizenship entails, Jackson effectively drained the word allegiance of its traditional meaning.
If the mere capacity of a foreign government to prosecute a visiting tourist now counts as allegiance, then the constitutional standard becomes almost meaningless. Allegiance has always implied a bond of loyalty to a nationan obligation to uphold its laws, respect its sovereignty, and, when necessary, defend its borders and institutions.
Cecillia Wang, an attorney for the far-left ACLU, immediately endorsed Jacksons framing, replying, Thats absolutely right, Justice Jackson. That response underscored how aggressively progressive activists are pushing to redefine core constitutional concepts in ways that erode the distinction between citizen and non-citizen.
Many Americans, especially those who value ordered citizenship and the rule of law, see this wallet in Japan theory as emblematic of an elite legal culture detached from common sense. Justice Jacksons analogy is not merely odd; it trivializes the sacrifices of lawful citizens who truly understand what it means to owe allegiance to the United States of America and to obtain that status through loyalty, legal process, and respect for national sovereignty.
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