Trump v. Barbara · ¶283

An assistant solicitor named Richard Flournoy prominently argued that the Citizenship Clause does include the children of temporary visitors. See Dual Nationality and Election, 30 Yale L. J. 545, 546 (1921). He disagreed with “a number of writers” who held that “in order that a person born in the United States of alien parents may have American citizenship, his parents must have been domiciled in this country at the time of his birth.” Id., at 552. Although he acknowledged that “Wong Kim Ark did not directly decide the precise point,” he said that the Citizenship Clause should be read to incorporate a rule that “originated with the feudal system, under which all persons, with certain limited exceptions, born within the fief of an over lord were held to owe fealty to him and allegiance to the sovereign.” Id., at 546, 552. Flournoy acknowledged that some consequences of his theory were…

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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