Trump v. Barbara · ¶120

But the Government’s view (which the principal dissent adopts) rejects this. Its argument focuses on the fact that the Citizenship Clause had a particular purpose: to reverse Dred Scott’s holding that Black Americans were not entitled to citizenship. See Brief for Petitioners 13–14; post, at 1–2. The reasoning is, in essence, that the Fourteenth Amendment recognized freed Blacks as citizens because they had “‘fought and bled’” in the Civil War, “had no other homeland, owed no allegiance to any foreign power, and were subject to no other authority.” Post, at 1; see also Brief for Petitioners 16–18. Thus, the argument goes, the Amendment’s guarantees are for only Black Americans and those who fit their fought-and-bled-for-country, no-otherhomeland, domiciled mold. Post, at 1–3, 90.

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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