June 2025
Who is defined as a “U.S. citizen” may be on the line — and how Congress and the courts construe a few words in the Fourteenth Amendment may be the deciding factor.
The 14th Amendment was ratified after the Civil War. Its text begins with the Citizenship Clause: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
These words grant what has come to be known as “birthright citizenship” — children born in the United States to immigrant parents, even those who are not themselves citizens, are entitled to the rights and privileges of U.S. citizenship. And that has been the rule since 1898, when the Supreme Court held that a child born in the U.S. to Chinese parents who were not eligible for citizenship was nonetheless a citizen in United States v. Wong Kim Ark.
But efforts to end birthright citizenship are underway.
