14th Amendment

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled several times that the 14th Amendment does not grant birthright citizenship. The 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause was written to establish citizenship for the slaves freed after the Civil War. The amendment was passed to counter the Dred Scott decision, which explicitly held that black slaves were not citizens.

That’s why, for example, the children of diplomats and foreign ministers are not granted citizenship on the basis of being born here. Only since 1982 has there been a claim that birth inside the country automatically conferred birthright. The source for this idea was a footnote to a decision written by Justice William Brennan. The claim is not Constitutional, and it has not been supported by the Supreme Court.

Here are a few examples of relevant Supreme Court cases.

Supreme Court opinion in the Slaughterhouse cases (1873)

"No one can fail to be impressed with the one pervading purpose found in (the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments), lying at the foundation of each, and without which none of them would have been even suggested; we mean the freedom of the slave race, the security and firm establishment of that freedom, and the protection of the newly-made freeman and citizen from the oppressions of those who had formerly exercised unlimited dominion over him."

Supreme Court opinion in Ex Parte Virginia (1879)

"[The 14th Amendment was] primarily designed to give freedom to persons of the African race, prevent their future enslavement, make them citizens, prevent discriminating State legislation against their rights as freemen, and secure to them the ballot."

Supreme Court opinion in Strauder v. West Virginia (1880)

"The 14th Amendment was framed and adopted ... to assure to the colored race the enjoyment of all the civil rights that, under the law, are enjoyed by white persons, and to give to that race the protection of the general government in that enjoyment whenever it should be denied by the States."

Supreme Court opinion in Neal v. Delaware (1880)

"The right secured to the colored man under the 14th Amendment and the civil rights laws is that he shall not be discriminated against solely on account of his race or color."

Supreme Court opinion in Elk v. Wilkins (1884)

John Elk was a Native American who argued that he was a citizen in light of the 14^th Amendment.

The Supreme Court ruled that the 14th amendment did not grant Indians citizenship, saying, "The main object of the opening sentence of the 14th Amendment was to settle the question, upon which there had been a difference of opinion throughout the country and in this court, as to the citizenship of free negroes and to put it beyond doubt that all persons, white or black, and whether formerly slaves or not, born or naturalized in the United States, and owing no allegiance to any alien power, should be citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside...The evident meaning of (the words, "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof") is, not merely subject in some respect or degree to the jurisdiction of the United States, but completely subject to their political jurisdiction, and owing them direct and immediate allegiance...Persons not thus subject to the jurisdiction of the United States at the time of birth cannot become so afterward, except by being naturalized...no one can become a citizen of a nation without its consent..."

Indians did not become citizens until passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.