Trump v. Barbara · ¶168

In America, you were generally a citizen if you were born here and this was your home. The legal word for home was domicile. The concepts were so linked as to be taken as effectively synonymous at times, such that Justice Bushrod Washington could say: “[C]itizenship means domicil— home—permanent residence.” Gardner v. Sharp, 9 F. Cas. 1196, 1199 (No. 5,236) (CC NJ 1826). The same correspondence has persisted throughout American history. See, e.g., Harding v. Standard Oil Co., 182 F. 421, 423 (CC ND Ill. 1910) (“‘Domicile’ and ‘citizenship’ are substantially synonymous terms, in most cases”). Citizens were not the people who were temporarily passing through a territory or who happened to be born within it. Citizens were the permanent members of the body politic—the people whose roots were in a place, who called that place home, and who would, if necessary, go to war for that place. The…

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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