Trump v. Barbara · ¶250

The most celebrated Fourteenth Amendment opinion is Justice Harlan’s dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson. In that dissent, Justice Harlan disagreed with the Plessy Court’s conclusion that the Constitution tolerated state-imposed segregation. Justice Harlan took the position, to be vindicated decades later, that “[o]ur Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.” 163 U. S., at 559. He also took a view on whom the Citizenship Clause applied and did not apply to. According to Justice Harlan, the Citizenship Clause did not apply to persons born here who resided abroad. Instead, it “gave citizenship to all born or naturalized in the United States and residing here.” Id., at 563 (emphasis added).

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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