Second, what is its legal basis? And third, how could it be changed or limited?WHAT IS BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP?In the leading United States Supreme Court decision regarding birthright citizenship, United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), the Court’s opinion provided a lengthy history of citizenship by place of birth in England, the American colonies and elsewhere, and compared citizenship by birth and its counterpart the rule of descent (Id. at 667).
Second, what is its legal basis? And third, how could it be changed or limited?WHAT IS BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP?In the leading United States Supreme Court decision regarding birthright citizenship,United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), the Court’s opinion provided a lengthy history of citizenship by place of birth in England, the American colonies and elsewhere, and compared citizenship by birth and its counterpart the rule of descent (Id.at 667).Citizenship by birth, with two historic exceptions, is determined geographically, and is based on the premise that a person’s parents, whether themselves citizens or aliens, owed their allegiance to the ruler of the jurisdiction where they resided and were under the protection of such ruler; hence their children born within the realm of the ruler were likewise subject to the jurisdiction of the ruler; and by place of birth were deemed “natural born citizens” of that realm.
The scope of the 14th Amendment was largely settled in the 19th century when the Supreme Court heard the case of Wong Kim Ark. In that case, the Court held the Fourteenth Amendment does not exclude children born in the United States of foreign parents from birthright citizenship.169 U.S. 649 (1898). And yet, the birthright debate continues.