Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship

The US Supreme Court upheld the constitutional right of birthright citizenship this week, rejecting proposed restrictions from President Donald Trump and invalidating a central component of his immigration agenda. The ruling affirmed that individuals born in the United States are automatically granted citizenship, a principle rooted in the Fourteenth Amendment. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the majority opinion. In their dissent, they argued that national citizenship was historically derivative of state citizenship, and that state citizenship, in turn, required domicile. Justice Thomas wrote, "National citizenship was not an independent concept but simply derivative of state citizenship. 'Every citizen of a state,' it was often said, was 'ipso facto a citizen of the United States.' In these contexts, too, national citizenship required domicile because state citizenship required domicile." Elizabeth Wydra, President of the Constitutional Accountability Center, discussed the implications of the ruling with Bloomberg. The decision represents a significant legal victory for proponents of broad citizenship rights and a setback for efforts to curtail immigration through executive action. The court's interpretation reinforces the long-standing understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause, which states that "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."