As a general rule, babies born in the United States of America are citizens of the United States of America. There isn’t any question about that. It’s in the Constitution, 14th Amendment: “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.”
After his election to his second term in November 2024, Trump said to NBC News of the 14th Amendment: “We’re going to have to get it changed. We’re going to end that because it’s ridiculous.”
If the president, as with any other citizen, thinks there’s a problem with some part of the Constitution, he’s welcome to lead the charge to repeal it, and with his bully pulpit he would have a better chance than most in his quest.
But instead of pursuing normal legal channels, Trump on his first day back in office issued an executive order saying children born to undocumented immigrants and to some foreigners living here temporarily would no longer be granted automatic citizenship. Because capricious executive orders can’t be unconstitutional, a court put a stay on the order before it could go into effect. And now, naturally, the White House is taking the issue to the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule on birthright citizenship by early next summer.
You have seen the language. It’s plain as day.
It’s also as American as can be. As noted by Alex Norwasteh of the Cato Institute earlier this year, “Birthright citizenship has been the norm in the United States since before the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment and even before the American Revolution, going back to Calvin’s Case in 1608 that established jus soli in all areas ruled by the English Crown.”
But Trump’s lawyers will seize on an old fringe argument that the 14th’s clause “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” shows the amendment was only meant to apply to the families of formerly enslaved Americans, ensuring that their citizenship was not in question in the Jim Crow era. Anyone in the United States is of course subject to its jurisdiction — to the laws of the land. Including the 14th Amendment.
We trust that the Supreme Court will agree.