Today’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Kellie Slappey, intern for the John Locke Foundation.

RALEIGH — Conservatives have been repeatedly called xenophobic because of their criticism of judges who consider foreign law when interpreting the U.S. Constitution. Just in the last month, The New York Times ran an editorial praising Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as brave for suggesting that we could learn something from observing others nations’ laws. Ginsburg even went as far as to conjure up the Founders to support her views, citing the Federalist Papers several times to remind us that we “ought not to be altogether ignorant of the law of nations.”

I wonder, however, if Justice Ginsburg or the Times would be as sympathetic to other nations’ laws when it comes to the issue of, for example, anchor babies and citizenship? America seems to be one of the only developed nations left that still allow illegal aliens to gain full citizenship for their children by merely giving birth on U.S. soil.

In Britain, at least one of the parents must have British citizenship for that citizenship to be passed on to the child. No birthright citizenship exists in Sweden, either. At least one parent must be a Swedish citizen for citizenship to pass on to a child born on Swedish soil. Although Canada does grant citizenship to children born on Canadian soil, the nation does not grant benefits such as medical care or education to the noncitizen parents.

Or how about corporate income tax rates? Our corporate income tax rate has fallen out of step with the rest of the industrialized world. According to the Tax Foundation, America continues to enforce the second-highest overall corporate income tax among industrialized countries, with a combined federal and state rate of 39.1 percent.

Corporate income taxes offer an example of double taxation because the same income is taxed first as profit and then a second time as individual income when distributed as dividends to shareholders. The corporate tax burden is not ultimately borne by the actual corporations as many believe, but by shareholders, workers, and consumers.

As other nations like Canada, Sweden, and the Czech Republic have recently made cuts to their corporate rate, it becomes harder for the United States to attract corporations and improve capital, jobs, and economic growth. A study released by economists from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development argues that corporate taxes are the most harmful to a nation when it comes to economic growth.

If the United States wants to stay globally competitive, we must be aware of what other nations are doing to attract business and alter our laws accordingly. Perhaps Justice Ginsburg, The New York Times, and liberals should “not be altogether ignorant of the law of nations.”