Trump v. Barbara · ¶332

I would not interpret “subject to the jurisdiction” to refer to the exclusion of three bespoke categories of persons whose relationship to the sovereign was not described in those terms. There is a simpler interpretation of the text that was expressly endorsed by those closer in time to ratification: Children born to diplomats, hostile alien occupiers, and Indians in tribes were not citizens because they were not subject to the complete jurisdiction of the United States. For the same reason, the children of foreign temporary visitors, who were also not subject to the complete jurisdiction of the United States, were also not citizens.

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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