Trump v. Barbara · ¶159

Congress implemented the principle that citizenship follows birth and domicile in the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and then in the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Civil Rights Act guaranteed citizenship to persons who were both “born in the United States” and, as relevant here, “not subject to any foreign power.” Act of Apr. 9, 1866, 14 Stat. 27. The phrase “not subject to any foreign power” excluded from citizenship children of foreign temporary visitors, who were subject to the power of their home nation. See, e.g., The Pizarro, 2 Wheat. 227, 246 (1817); The Venus, 8 Cranch, at 278–279. The Citizenship Clause, which the same Congress passed shortly after the Civil Rights Act, was understood to have the same meaning. It guaranteed citizenship to persons who were both “born . . . in the United States” and “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Amdt. 14, §1.

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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