On the very first day of his second term in office, President Donald 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 Constitution’s 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 met with immediate legal challenges and a wave of court rulings blocking its enforcement, and it is destined for a Supreme Court showdown. The history of the 14th Amendment will likely play a key role in the outcome of the case. What historical currents led to the ratification of the amendment’s Citizenship Clause? What did the framers intend? How did courts interpret its guarantees in the decades following? How do today’s attacks on birthright citizenship relate to historical attempts to deny citizenship to people born and living in the United States?
Join the Brennan Center virtually on Thursday, June 12, at 12:30 p.m. ET for a discussion with leading experts on the historical and legal dimensions of the attack on birthright citizenship.
Produced in partnership with the Organization of American Historians
Speakers:
- Martha Jones, Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University
- Erika Lee, Bae Family Professor of History, Radcliffe Alumnae Professor, Harvard University
- Kate Masur, Professor of History, Northwestern University
- Moderator: Kareem Crayton, Vice President for Washington, DC, Brennan Center
