Trump v. Barbara · ¶172

This approach was consistent with this country’s settler ethos. Daniel Webster wrote that “no government has carried th[e] general presumption f[u]rther” than the United States that a person attains a new “national character” when he “settles” and “inten[ds] permanently to reside” in a nation. Report of Secretary of State D. Webster (Dec. 23, 1851), H. R. Exec. Doc. No. 10, 32d Cong., 1st Sess., 2 (1860) (Webster Report) (internal quotation marks omitted). Although some nations would lay claim to anyone born in their land or any descendant of their citizens, America viewed its people as the people who built their lives here. A person domiciled here “pays the same price for his protection as native-born or naturalized citizens pay for theirs”: “In war he shares equally with them in the calamities which may befall the country,” “his services may be required for its defence,” and “his life…

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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