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BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT
By Joshua Barajas
Senior Editor, Digital
A deal to end the longest partial shutdown in U.S. history collapsed in a spectacular fashion last week.
With Congress now on a two-week break, there's no end or fix to this funding quagmire in sight.
It's a different story a block away at the Supreme Court, which is very much in session.
Justices will hear arguments Wednesday in Trump v. Barbara, a consequential case on birthright citizenship.
Right now, virtually anyone born on U.S. soil has a right to citizenship, a constitutionally protected right that the high court affirmed 128 years ago. If it's ultimately struck down, an estimated 255,000 children born each year would not be granted citizenship. That shift would not only affect individuals and families, but come with "profound social and economic impacts" on communities across the country, according to a 2025 analysis from the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University's Population Research Institute.
Here's what you need to know about the high-profile case.
What does the U.S. Constitution say?
The first sentence of the 14th Amendment reads: "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."
There are minor exceptions. Children of foreign diplomats and invading enemies are exempted from birthright citizenship. For a time, some Native Americans born to tribal nations were also excluded. This was reversed in 1924.
The big goal of the 14th Amendment was to overrule the Supreme Court's infamous Dred Scott decision, which held that Black people, free or enslaved people, were not citizens of the United States.
The citizenship clause has been a long-held precedent, stemming from a 1898 Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark. As the namesake in this pivotal case, Wong – who was born in San Francisco — was denied entry into the country after a trip abroad in 1895. The government argued that Wong, whose parents were Chinese nationals barred from becoming U.S. citizens under the Chinese Exclusion Act, wasn't entitled to birthright citizenship.
The justices disagreed. In a 6-2 decision, the court ruled that the 14th Amendment granted citizenship to a child born on U.S. soil, including U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants.
Writing for the majority, Justice Horace Gray wrote: "The Amendment, in clear words and in manifest intent, includes the children born, within the territory of the United States, of all other persons, of whatever race or color, domiciled within the United States. Every citizen or subject of another country, while domiciled here, is within the allegiance and the protection, and consequently subject to the jurisdiction, of the United States."
Why does Trump want to end birthright citizenship?
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