Understanding Birthright Citizenship and Its Legal Challenges

OA1094 - Denaturalization and an executive order revoking birthright citizenship for children of undocumented parents have both been in the news a lot recently, and Matt would like everyone to take a breath and do some realistic risk assessment. We review what it actually takes to denaturalize someone under our current system, and what it would take for a majority of even this Supreme Court to say that the Fourteenth Amendment doesn’t say exactly what it says. 

• Departure Statement of Wong Kim Ark, National Archives San Francisco

• U.S. v Wong Kim Ark, 169 US 649 (1898)

• Trump announcement on birthright citizenship executive order, Agenda 47 (2024)

• Birthright Citizens: a History of Race and Rights in Antebellum History, Martha Jones (2018)

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