Trump v. Barbara · ¶417

The Court’s account of the birthright-citizenship rule in American law is roughly as follows. After American independence, the British rule of birthright subjecthood was modified in just one way (to take account of Indians who lived under tribal governance), but otherwise the rule was transplanted intact to American soil. As modified, the rule was that a child born in this country is automatically an American citizen unless the child is born to tribal Indians or to a diplomat with immunity from legal process. During the period before the Civil War, the rule’s status was firm. After the war, Congress codified the rule in §1 of the Fourteenth Amendment. And in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U. S. 649 (1898), this Court issued a binding precedent confirming what Congress had done.

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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