Frequently Asked Questions: Citizenship under 14th Amendment

Legal Updates

Birthright citizenship is a constitutional right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. If you are born in the United States, you are a citizen. 

However, almost immediately after taking office, President Trump signed an executive order seeking to upend the Constitution and over 100 years of Supreme Court precedent by limiting birthright citizenship. This brazen attack would deny citizenship to children born in the U.S after February 19, 2025 if neither of the child’s parents is a citizen or has permanent immigration status. 

On the same day the executive order was issued, the ACLU and partners filed a lawsuit challenging the executive order. Other groups and state governments, including Arizona filed similar lawsuits. These cases secured preliminary injunctions that block the Trump administration from implementing its executive order. 

June 27, 2025

However, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Trump v CASA, limiting the nationwide effect of those injunctions. In response to the Supreme Court decision, the ACLU and partners, filed a nationwide class action lawsuit, Barbara et al. v. Trump challenging the executive order and addressing the issues raised in the CASA decision. 

July 10, 2025

The federal judge in the Barbara case again blocked the executive order from going into effect for all children affected by the order nationwide. This means that the executive order is not currently in effect. These cases are moving quickly through the courts so check back for updates, share information with your family and friends, and take action to oppose Trump’s executive order.  

Birthright Citizenship: Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Citizenship Clause of the 14^th Amendment?

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that, with few discrete exceptions, people born in the United States are citizens of this country, irrespective of race, ethnicity, or national origin of their parents. The Amendment was ratified to rectify one of the most infamous U.S. Supreme Court rulings in our nation’s history – the Dred Scott v. Sandford[1] decision of 1857, in which the Court held that no individuals of African descent, including enslaved and free persons, could ever become U.S. citizens. 

In response to Dred Scott, Congress passed and the states ratified the 14th Amendment. Its very first sentence states unambiguously: “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.” 

The intent of these powerful words was to put citizenship above the politics and prejudices of any given era, a goal that is as important today as it was at the time of the 14th Amendment’s ratification. 

Does the 14^th Amendment guarantee citizenship for children born in the United States whose parents are not U.S. citizens?

Yes. Citizenship under the 14th Amendment includes those born in the United States to parents who are not U.S. citizens. This was clearly established over 100 years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court. In the landmark 1898 decision of United States v. Wong Kim Ark,[2] the Court held that a person born in San Francisco to Chinese parents – who, at the time, were not permitted to naturalize as U.S. citizens – nonetheless became a U.S. citizen at the time of his birth. As the Court explained, “[t]o hold that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution excludes from citizenship the children born in the United States of citizens or subjects of other countries, would be to deny citizenship to thousands of persons of English, Scotch, Irish, German, or other European parentage, who have always been considered and treated as citizens of the United States.”[3] 

Some have suggested that the 14th Amendment’s phrase, “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” is open to reinterpretation. It’s not. The Supreme Court explained that this phrase simply meant that the children born to foreign diplomats or hostile forces are not automatically U.S. citizens.[4] The Court subsequently affirmed the understanding that non-citizens, including undocumented immigrants, are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States under the 14th Amendment.[5] 

Have similar attacks on the 14^th Amendment been made before now?

Unfortunately, yes. The attacks on the 14th Amendment that are being mounted today aren’t new. Even prior to its passage, some people objected to extending citizenship to the native born children of various immigrant groups based on then-prevailing prejudices, but these objections were soundly rejected – in the late 19th century when Chinese Americans came under attack, and during World War II when some sought to strip Japanese Americans of their citizenship.  

Can the constitutional right to citizenship at birth be repealed by legislation?

No. The right to citizenship at birth is enshrined in our Constitution and cannot be repealed without a constitutional amendment.[6] Changing the U.S. Constitution requires approval by two thirds of both the House and the Senate. Additionally, 3/4 of the nation's state legislatures would need to ratify any change. 

Although citizenship at birth has been firmly established in our Constitution for over 150 years, some lawmakers have introduced bills in Congress and at the state level to deny citizenship to the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants. Almost universally, legal scholars and historians have repudiated the notion that politicians can deny citizenship to children born in the United States through simple legislation. Similarly, no judicial court has endorsed this misguided theory.