Trump v. Barbara · ¶28

Abolitionists swore to undo what the Court had done. “By birth,” Frederick Douglass insisted, “we are American citizens.” 2 Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass 259 (P. Foner ed. 1950). “The Constitution knows all the human inhabitants of this country as ‘the people,’” he explained, no matter their “color, class, or clime.” Id., at 415, 424. “[A]ll I ask of the American people is, that they live up to the Constitution, adopt its principles, imbibe its spirit, and enforce its provisions.” Id., at 424. “When this is done,” Douglass predicted, “the glorious birthright of our common humanity” will once again “become the inheritance of all the inhabitants of this highly favored country.” Ibid.

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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