{"id":5399,"date":"2026-09-25T11:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T15:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/?p=5399"},"modified":"2026-09-25T11:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T15:08:15","slug":"the-supreme-courts-error-in-trump-v-barbara-citizenship-consent-and-the-self-governing-republic-linda-denno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/the-supreme-courts-error-in-trump-v-barbara-citizenship-consent-and-the-self-governing-republic-linda-denno\/","title":{"rendered":"The Supreme Court’s Error in Trump v. Barbara: Citizenship, Consent, and the Self-Governing Republic \u2013 Linda Denno"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
PDF<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

 In Trump v. Barbara<\/em>, the Supreme Court struck down Executive Order 14,160, which sought to clarify that the Fourteenth Amendment\u2019s Citizenship Clause does not automatically confer U.S. citizenship on children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully present or only temporarily present. The majority held that mere birth on American soil, combined with territorial presence under U.S. laws, satisfies the requirement of being \u201csubject to the jurisdiction thereof.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This decision represents a profound misreading of the Constitution\u2019s text, its historical context, the Founding principles of consent and self-government, and the limited scope of earlier precedents. Moreover, the Court wrongly constitutionalized a policy of universal territorial birthright citizenship that the Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment never intended and that undermines the very idea of a self-governing political community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the heart of the American experiment lies the principle that legitimate government rests on the consent of the governed. The Declaration of Independence announced that governments derive \u201ctheir just powers from the consent of the governed\u201d and that the American people had absolved themselves of all allegiance to the British Crown, assuming a \u201cseparate and equal station\u201d under the laws of nature. Citizenship in this new order was not a feudal status of perpetual subjectship owed to a monarch\u2019s person, as articulated in the 1608 English decision Calvin\u2019s Case<\/em>. It was an active, consensual membership in a political community dedicated to the natural equality of all human beings and the capacity of mankind for self-government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here<\/a> to continue rading the full piece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 In Trump v. Barbara, the Supreme Court struck down Executive Order 14,160, which sought to clarify that the Fourteenth Amendment\u2019s Citizenship Clause does not automatically confer U.S. citizenship on children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully present or only temporarily present. The majority held that mere birth on American soil, combined with territorial presence under U.S. laws, satisfies the requirement of being \u201csubject to the jurisdiction thereof.\u201d This decision represents a […]<\/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":false,"_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":[72],"tags":[120],"class_list":["post-5399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-per-curiam","tag-symposium"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZSiL-1p5","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5399","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=5399"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5404,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5399\/revisions\/5404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}