Trump v. Barbara · ¶31

The Reconstruction Congress did not start from scratch. In the midst of the Civil War, President Lincoln’s Attorney General, Edward Bates, had issued a landmark opinion that sought to displace Dred Scott in favor of the common law. Citing the key authorities (among them Calvin’s Case and Kent’s Commentaries), Bates rejected the premise that “citizenship is ever hereditary.” 10 Op. Atty. Gen. 382, 399 (1862). “[E]very person born in the country,” he wrote, “is, at the moment of birth, prima facie a citizen . . . without any reference to race or color, or any other accidental circumstances.” Id., at 394. He acknowledged that there were some limits—hence “prima facie,” not “conclusive.” See id., at 394, 396–397. But those exceptions were “few,” simply “the small and admitted class of the natural-born composed of the children of foreign ministers and the like.” Id., at 397. To Bates, it was…

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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