Birthright Citizenship: To Be or Not To Be (PDF)

Swamp Creatures: Judiciary 

The debate over birthright citizenship reduces to a single textual question: what does the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" mean in the 14th Amendment's Citizenship Clause? Both sides claim the answer lies in the same primary materials — the constitutional text, predecessor statutes, legislative debates, and subsequent acts of Congress. What follows is a structured presentation of those primary sources, leaving judicial opinions entirely aside.

The operative text, as it appears in the enrolled act recorded by the National Archives and reproduced verbatim on Congress.gov:

"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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."