What is birthright citizenship, and why is it a constitutional right?

The Supreme Court has ruled on Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship case limiting injunctions put in place by lower courts and giving the president a win. The case doesn’t revolve around the actual constitutional right, but instead on whether lower courts have the right to impose a nationwide injunction blocking Trump’s executive order from taking effect.

The US is one of around 30 countries that recognizes ‘jus soli‘, or ‘the law of the soil’, which grants automatic citizenship to all babies born within the borders of a nation. Others follow ‘jus sanguinis‘, or ‘the law of the blood’, which means that only those born to natives of a country can obtain citizenship at birth. A third group have a mix of the two policies.

Birthright citizenship, a constitutional right

Birthright citizenship is enshrined in the 14th Amendment which was established and ratified after the Civil War. The primary target of the right was freed slaves that were brought to the United States not of their own free will However, the right also applied to all immigrants.

The idea of birthright citizen as stated in the 14th Amendment is straightforward: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

The Supreme Court affirmed this in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), establishing that children born on U.S. soil – regardless of their parents’ immigration status – are citizens. While there are exceptions like for children of diplomats or hostile occupiers, it is now established precedent.

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