The Guarantee of Birthright Citizenship

On the first day of his second term, President Trump issued an executive order purporting to strip U.S. citizenship from the children of undocumented immigrants. The order directly conflicts with the plain language of the 14th Amendment, 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.” And it defies more than a century of case law. 

The executive order was met with a wave of court rulings blocking its enforcement, and the Supreme Court has already heard arguments on the issue. What historical currents led to the ratification of the amendment’s Citizenship Clause? How did courts interpret its guarantees in the decades following? And how do today’s attacks on birthright citizenship relate to historical attempts to deny citizenship to people born and living in the United States?

Speakers:

• Kate Masur, Professor of History, Northwestern University
• Martha Jones, Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University
• Erika Lee, Bae Family Professor of History, Radcliffe Alumnae Professor, Harvard University
• Thomas Wolf, Director of Democracy Initiatives, Founder of Historians Council on the Constitution, Brennan Center
• Moderator: Kareem Crayton, Vice President for Washington, DC, Brennan Center

Recorded on June 11, 2025.

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