Trump v. Barbara · ¶134

This Court’s 1898 Wong Kim Ark decision interpreted the “subject to the jurisdiction” language of the Fourteenth Amendment. United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U. S. 649. That decision adopted a general rule of birthright citizenship for those born in the United States—with four disparate exceptions for “children of foreign sovereigns or their ministers, or born on foreign public ships, or of enemies within and during a hostile occupation of part of our territory” and “children of members of the Indian tribes.” Id., at 693; see also Elk v. Wilkins, 112 U. S. 94, 102 (1884). Importantly, the Wong Kim Ark decision treated those four exceptions as a closed set for constitutional purposes, meaning that Congress could not create other exceptions to birthright citizenship, although Congress could eliminate one or more of those four exceptions. See 169 U. S., at 682, 693.

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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