Latest Breaking News
In reply to the discussion: Trump says administration looking 'seriously' at ending birthright citizenship [View all]Fortinbras Armstrong
(4,473 posts)United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898). Wong was born in San Francisco, the son of a Chinese couple who, because of the Chinese Exclusion Acts, were legally prohibited from becoming US citizens. Wong had gone to China to visit relatives, and on return to the US, was refused admittance under the Chinese Exclusion Acts. He sued, saying that under the Fourteenth Amendment, his birth in the US made him a citizen.
The Supreme Court, by a vote of 6-2, agreed with Wong. Justice Gray wrote the majority opinion, which basically says that everyone, with a few specific exceptions -- chiefly the children of diplomats -- born in the US is a US citizen. He has a very interesting discussion of the term "natural born citizen". See https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/169/649