Trump v. Barbara · ¶550

At the heart of today’s dispute lie two competing views of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause. On one account, the Clause incorporated the English common law rule of jus soli (literally, the “right of the soil”). That rule, developed in feudal times, had more to do with being a subject than a citizen. It was based on the notion that a “man owed personal service to the lord of the soil, the same as his master owed it to the king; and it was born with the child and only ended in the grave.” 2 Cong. Rec. 3282 (1874); see also 1 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 369 (1768); ante, at 2–4 (majority opinion). On the other account, the Clause adopted a distinctly American settler’s view of citizenship. One that promises the full “dignity and glory of American citizenship” to any child born in this country to parents who have made this Nation their permanent home,…

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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