The Supreme Court just reaffirmed one of the most basic promises in the Constitution: if you're born in the United States, you're a citizen. Andy Ogles responded by declaring the Court had "betrayed America" — and introducing a bill to take that citizenship away.

What Ogles is trying to do

On June 30, 2026, Ogles introduced the "Anchors Away Act," which would rewrite immigration law to strip birthright citizenship from children born in the U.S. unless at least one parent is a citizen, legal permanent resident, or serving in the military. It would also bar many pregnant foreign visitors from entering the country.

He filed it days after the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that birthright citizenship — guaranteed by the 14th Amendment — is the law of the land and does not violate the Constitution. In other words, the highest court in the country said the Constitution means what it plainly says. Ogles' answer was to try to override it by statute.

The words he chose

You can learn a lot about a politician from the language he uses. Here's how Ogles talked about newborn babies and their families:

"I refuse to let these anchor babies colonize our country. Save our sovereignty. Anchors away!"

He also said the Supreme Court "cheapened the most valuable thing on planet Earth: U.S. citizenship," and posted on X that the Court had "betrayed America" by upholding the 14th Amendment.

Calling children "anchor babies" who "colonize our country" isn't policy debate. It's dehumanizing language aimed at kids and their parents — and it tells you exactly how Ogles sees the people he's targeting.

Fighting the Constitution, not for constituents

Birthright citizenship has been settled law since the 14th Amendment was ratified after the Civil War, and the Supreme Court just confirmed it again. Ogles isn't offering a serious fix to a real problem his district is facing — he's picking a fight with the Constitution to generate outrage and headlines.

This is a familiar move for Andy Ogles. He's the same congressman who, three days into Trump's second term, filed a resolution to change the 22nd Amendment so Trump could run for a third term. He tried to overturn the Constitution's term limits then; he's trying to gut its citizenship guarantee now. Ogles reaches for the Constitution as something to rewrite whenever it gets in the way of what his side wants.

A pattern of targeting whole groups

The "anchor babies" rhetoric also isn't a one-off. Ogles has repeatedly used his platform to declare that entire groups of people don't belong:

• His official congressional account posted at the start of Pride Month: "Homosexuality has no place in America." After bipartisan backlash — including Republicans who called it "idiotic" — he deleted it and blamed a staffer.
• Earlier in the year, he declared that "Muslims don't belong in American society."

Now it's the children of immigrants. The through-line is a politician who keeps deciding, out loud, who counts as a real American — and who doesn't.

The bottom line

While families in Tennessee's 5th District worry about premiums quadrupling and the cost of living, Andy Ogles is spending his energy trying to overturn a constitutional right the Supreme Court just upheld — and calling babies "anchors" while he does it. That's not standing up for his constituents. That's picking a fight with the Constitution for attention.

Source

This post is based on reporting from Fox News and AOL/Yahoo News.