Who Belongs? Birthright Citizenship from the 14th Amendment to the Supreme Court

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Who Belongs?

Birthright Citizenship from the 14th Amendment

to the Supreme Court

 A Journal to Albany / Paths to Belonging Event

 Co-Sponsored by LWVBAE

 Albany Public Library  |  April 8, 2026, 6:00–7:30 PM

On April 8, the League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany, and Emeryville co-sponsored a powerful community forum at the Albany Public Library exploring one of the most fundamental — and currently contested — questions in American life: Who gets to be a citizen?

The event, part of the Journal to Albany and Paths to Belonging series, brought together two leading scholars to trace the legal and historical arc of birthright citizenship from the nation’s founding to this moment. Professor Gregory Downs, a UC Davis historian of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras and Albany resident, joined Dr. Ming Hsu Chen, Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Center on Race, Immigration, Citizenship, and Equality at UC Law San Francisco, for a discussion that was at once deeply historical and urgently present.

A Right Forged in Struggle

The story of birthright citizenship is not a footnote in constitutional history — it is the story of who America decides to include, told again and again across centuries.

The presenters traced that story through landmark turning points. In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that Black people — whether enslaved or free — could never be citizens of the United States. The decision was among the most reviled in American jurisprudence, and the nation fought a civil war in its shadow. The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, was written to repudiate Dred Scott decisively, declaring that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

But the amendment’s promise was not extended evenly. Native Americans were explicitly excluded from its protections until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 — and even then, some states blocked Indigenous people from voting for decades afterward. The Chinese Exclusion era brought its own test: in 1898, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that a man born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrant parents was a U.S. citizen by birthright. That decision affirmed the broad, inclusive reading of the 14th Amendment that has governed American law for more than 125 years.

The Current Challenge

That settled understanding is now under direct challenge. On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14160, titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” which seeks to deny birthright citizenship to children born in the U.S. whose mothers are either undocumented or present on temporary visas (such as student or work visas) and whose fathers are not citizens or permanent residents. Legal experts estimate the order could affect roughly 150,000 children born annually to undocumented parents and approximately 30,000 children of parents on temporary visas.

Every federal court to consider the order has blocked it. One judge called it “blatantly unconstitutional.” Another found it in conflict with the plain language of the 14th Amendment and 125 years of binding precedent. Yet the administration pressed the case to the Supreme Court.

On April 1, 2026 — just one week before this event — the Court heard oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara. A majority of the justices appeared skeptical of the administration’s position. Chief Justice Roberts characterized the government’s argument as “quirky” and reminded the Solicitor General that while the world may have changed, “it’s the same Constitution.” Justice Gorsuch noted how rarely the concepts of “allegiance” and “domicile” — central to the administration’s case — appeared in the congressional debates that produced the 14th Amendment. Justice Kagan observed that the government was taking a “revisionist” position with respect to how Wong Kim Ark has been understood for over a century.

The ACLU attorney arguing against the executive order, Cecillia Wang — herself the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants who were on student visas when she was born in Oregon — told the Court that the 14th Amendment was designed to place the citizenship question beyond the reach of any government official.

A ruling is expected by summer.

Why This Matters Locally

The forum also featured a screening of scenes from 14: Dred Scott, Wong Kim Ark & Vanessa Lopez, a documentary that follows three families across American history whose fights for citizenship changed the law. The film makes vivid what the legal arguments can sometimes abstract: that behind every constitutional question is a family, a child, a life shaped by whether a nation chooses to claim them.

The discussion raised a concept scholars call “ascriptive Americanism” — the recurring impulse throughout U.S. history to define citizenship not by shared civic commitment but by race, parentage, or national origin. From the Naturalization Act of 1790, which limited citizenship to “free white persons,” through Chinese Exclusion, Japanese internment, and the current executive order, this impulse has resurfaced in every generation. Each time, it has been met by people — ordinary and extraordinary — who insisted on a broader definition of belonging.

What the League Believes — and What You Can Do

The League of Women Voters has long supported inclusive immigration and naturalization policies grounded in constitutional principles. We believe the broad telling of America’s citizenship story — one that includes Dred and Harriet Scott, Wong Kim Ark, Indigenous nations, and every family striving for belonging today — strengthens our democracy.

If this issue moves you, here are ways to stay engaged:

  • Learn the civic facts. The documentary 14 is available for community screenings. The Brennan Center for Justice and the American Immigration Council offer accessible legal explainers on birthright citizenship and the pending Supreme Court case.
  • Connect locally. Organizations in our community — including LWVBAE, the International Institute of the Bay Area, and legal aid clinics at UC Berkeley and UC Law SF — support immigrants navigating the citizenship process and civic participation.
  • Help new Americans belong. Volunteer with citizenship preparation programs, attend naturalization ceremonies, and support policies that welcome people striving to participate in our democracy.

The 14th Amendment was written to settle the question of who belongs. More than 150 years later, the answer still depends on whether we show up to defend it.

This event was co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany, and Emeryville as part of the Journal to Albany / Paths to Belonging series at the Albany Public Library.

 

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