Trump v. Barbara · ¶381

Then, “during the Fourteenth Amendment debates of the Thirty-Ninth Congress, Lynch went unmentioned. It was only during the Civil Rights Act [debates] that Lynch appeared—a single mention by a member who played no role in drafting the Fourteenth Amendment.” Lash, 101 Notre Dame L. Rev., at 119 (footnote omitted); see Epstein, The Myth of Birthright Citizenship, at 80 (“At the time of the debates over the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, moreover, Lynch v. Clarke appeared to play no role”). So, while this Court’s opinion invokes Lynch 13 times in 26 pages, the entire Reconstruction Congress in the combined course of deliberations over the Civil Rights Act and the Citizenship Clause mentioned it only once.

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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