{"id":5378,"date":"2026-09-18T10:11:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T14:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/?p=5378"},"modified":"2026-09-18T10:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T14:11:14","slug":"the-birthright-citizenship-debate-revisited-steven-j-menashi-elias-neibart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/the-birthright-citizenship-debate-revisited-steven-j-menashi-elias-neibart\/","title":{"rendered":"The Birthright Citizenship Debate Revisited \u2013 Steven J. Menashi & Elias Neibart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In February 2026, one of us observed in this journal that the executive order on birthright citizenship had been met with overwhelming skepticism from the legal profession. \u201cMany insisted that there was not even a genuine debate to be had.\u201d But as the litigation progressed, the \u201coverwrought rhetoric\u201d that initially greeted the order gave way to a \u201csober acknowledgement\u201d that the government presented a credible legal case. In a similar way, some commentators confidently predicted that, in Trump v. Barbara, the Supreme Court would unanimously reject the government\u2019s argument. As it turned out, only a bare majority of the Court concluded that the \u201cchildren born of parents unlawfully or temporarily present in the United States\u201d are born \u201csubject to the jurisdiction\u201d of the United States. Four Justices rejected the facial constitutional challenge to the order because, in their view, the Fourteenth Amendment does not guarantee birthright citizenship to all children born to aliens unlawfully or temporarily present. Following the close decision in Barbara, the originalist argument of the dissenters\u2014that the Fourteenth Amendment confers a more limited right to birthright citizenship than the doctrine now suggests\u2014appears more credible and serious than it did before. For that reason, instead of persuading \u201cthe contending sides of a national controversy\u201d to accept \u201ca common mandate rooted in the Constitution,\u201d the decision will likely intensify an ongoing debate. Contrary to what some have suggested, that will make the originalist arguments more rather than less important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The February essay also identified three \u201cother questions that deserve aSention,\u201d which we revisit in this essay in reverse order. First, \u201cwhat is the effect of the statutory enactment of the language of the Citizenship Clause?\u201d Second, \u201chow does the requirement that birth or naturalization occur \u2018in the United States\u2019 affect aliens detained at the border but released into the country pending a hearing?\u201d Third, how does constitutional birthright citizenship interact with \u201cthe availability of dual citizenship?\u201d Revisiting the role of originalism and these three questions in the wake of Barbara provides a guide to forthcoming debates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In February 2026, one of us observed in this journal that the executive order on birthright citizenship had been met with overwhelming skepticism from the legal profession. \u201cMany insisted that there was not even a genuine debate to be had.\u201d But as the litigation progressed, the \u201coverwrought rhetoric\u201d that initially greeted the order gave way to a \u201csober acknowledgement\u201d that the government presented a credible legal case. In a similar way, some commentators confidently predicted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[73,72],"tags":[120],"class_list":["post-5378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obiter-dicta","category-per-curiam","tag-symposium"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZSiL-1oK","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5380,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5378\/revisions\/5380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}