It’s unclear what legal basis the president would use to revoke the New York-born comedian’s status as an American citizen.
President Donald Trump has threatened to revoke Rosie O’Donnell’s U.S. citizenship.
Saying that O’Donnell is “not in the best interests” of the United States, Trump said he’s giving “serious consideration” to taking away her status as a U.S. citizen, adding that she should stay in Ireland.
“It’s been heartbreaking to see what’s happening politically,” O’Donnell said at the time. She said she was in the process of getting her Irish citizenship, based on her Irish ancestry.
O‘Donnell was born in 1962 in Long Island, New York, to parents Roseanne O’Donnell and Edward O’Donnell. Her father, an engineer, immigrated to the United States from Ireland. Accordingly, she has birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment.
It is unclear what legal basis or process Trump would use were he to follow through with his threat to revoke her citizenship. The Epoch Times reached out to the White House for comment and received no response by publication time.
In 1958, the Trop v. Dulles case involved a private in the U.S. Army who was a native-born citizen but whose citizenship was revoked due to his conviction by court-martial for wartime desertion.
Even if the executive could nullify U.S. citizenship, this would violate the 8th Amendment “because it is penal in nature and prescribes a ‘cruel and unusual’ punishment,” the majority wrote in the split opinion.
The Epoch Times has reached out to O’Donnell through her booking agents with a request for comment.
