Trump v. Barbara · ¶337

The Executive Branch’s position, from the outset, was that the Citizenship Clause excluded the children of aliens who were not subject to the “complete jurisdiction” of the United States. See 14 Op. Atty. Gen., at 300. Therefore, a child born in the United States but “domiciled” abroad was “on his birth ‘subject to a foreign power’ and ‘not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.’” Letter from Sec. of State T. Bayard to B. Winchester (Nov. 28, 1885), in 2 Wharton Digest 399–400. Many executive decisions under the Citizenship Clause denied citizenship to children born but not domiciled here. See Part I–E–1–a, supra. In recorded, reasoned decisions, the Hayes, Cleveland, and Harrison administrations—in accordance with the opinion of President Grant’s Attorney General—all denied citizenship to children born in the United States but not domiciled here (who also did not satisfy any…

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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