Trump v. Barbara · ¶300

The Court today affirms the District Court’s universal- class injunction. It holds that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees citizenship to all children born here to lawful temporary visitors or illegal aliens. On the Court’s telling, the law of citizenship in the United States was fixed to an English rule that everyone born on the soil was permanently bound to serve the sovereign. Ante, at 2–3. This principle of permanent feudal allegiance, according to the Court, was repurposed into a rule of citizenship and adopted by “all of the states.” Ante, at 4 (internal quotation marks omitted). The rule’s universal acceptance was embodied by an 1844 state equity decision called Lynch v. Clarke, 1 Sand. Ch. 583. See ante, at 6. The rule extended citizenship to all persons born within United States territory, except three categories: children of foreign representatives, children over whom the…

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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