Trump v. Barbara · ¶81

That was not the view of the Reconstruction Congress. Where the dissents see feudalism, the Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment saw emancipation. By the time of the Glorious Revolution in 1688, in fact, the tie created by birth was less a “duty” than a “right”—the foundation of the “ancient liberties” of “free-born subjects.” H. Muller, Subjects and Sovereign 16–18, 57–58 (2017). That is why Blackstone described the “privileges” owed to the “natural-born.” 1 Blackstone 361–362. That is why the colonists demanded the “rights of Englishmen” more than 250 years ago. B. Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution 192 (1967). And that is why abolitionists lauded the “ancient and universal” rule of citizenship by birth alone as “an ordinance of Heaven.” Yates 36–37; see also M. Jones, Birthright Citizens 89–107 (2018).

slip opinion, revised 7/01/26
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