Washington, April 2 The US Supreme Court heard sweeping arguments on whether the Constitution guarantees citizenship to all children born on American soil, as the Trump administration pressed a narrower reading that could exclude children of undocumented migrants and temporary visitors.
Arguing for the government on Wednesday (local time), Solicitor General John Sauer told the court that the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause was never meant to apply universally.
“The clause does not extend citizenship to the children of temporary visa holders or illegal aliens,” he said, emphasising that it requires “direct and immediate allegiance” to the United States.
Sauer anchored his case in history, stating the Amendment was designed after the Civil War primarily to guarantee citizenship to freed slaves and their descendants. He argued that allegiance -- tied to lawful domicile -- was central to that guarantee, not mere birth on US soil.
He told the justices that extending automatic citizenship to all births “demeans the priceless and profound gift of American citizenship” and creates incentives for illegal immigration, including what he described as a growing “birth tourism” industry.
Several conservative justices probed whether the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” could support such limits. Justice Samuel Alito raised whether a general constitutional rule could be applied to modern conditions like illegal immigration, which did not exist in the same form in 1868.
Others, however, expressed scepticism. Justice Elena Kagan said the administration’s position appeared “revisionist,” noting that for over a century, courts and the public have understood birthright citizenship broadly under the precedent of United States v. Wong Kim Ark.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson questioned whether the government was redefining “allegiance” beyond its common-law meaning, pointing out that even temporary visitors are subject to US laws and protections while in the country.
Arguing for the challengers, counsel defended the long-standing interpretation that nearly everyone born in the United States is a citizen. “Ask any American… everyone born here is a citizen alike,” she told the court, calling the rule a “fixed bright line” grounded in English common law and affirmed by precedent.
She stressed that the Supreme Court’s 1898 ruling in Wong Kim Ark established that birth on US soil -- with only narrow exceptions such as children of diplomats -- confers citizenship, regardless of parental status.
Wrestling with the practical consequences of the government’s position, justices questioned how officials would determine a newborn’s citizenship at birth, including whether parental immigration status or intent to remain would need to be assessed case by case.
Sauer said the administration’s policy would rely on “objectively verifiable” immigration status rather than subjective intent, and would apply prospectively.
The case has broad implications, potentially affecting thousands of children born annually in the United States and raising constitutional questions about the scope of congressional and executive power over citizenship.
Ratified in 1868, the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, states that “all persons born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens.”
It was enacted in the aftermath of the Civil War to overturn the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision, which had denied citizenship to African Americans.
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