Trump v. Barbara · ¶324
Second, the Court says, a person is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States when the Government lacks “actual power” over him. Ante, at 3. This category, presumably, is an attempt to accommodate the consensus that citizenship would not have been granted to the children of foreign invaders. See Brief for Respondents 1 (recognizing exception for a person in an “occupying arm[y]”); CASA, 606 U. S., at 884 (SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting) (recognizing exception for a person “born of alien enemies in hostile occupation” (internal quotation marks omitted)). But, while the child of a foreign invader is of course not constitutionally entitled to citizenship, it is not because America lacks “actual power” over him. If it were, then citizenship could be denied to any American over whom the Government happened to lack “actual power” at birth. The more likely reason why foreign invaders are…Read in context ›
slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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