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Citizenship Clause



 
 
The citizenship clause (also known as the naturalization clause) refers to a provision, in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the post-American Civil War Reconstruction Amendments that was first intended to secure the rights of former Slavery in the United States....
 at section one, clause 1. This clause represented Congress
United States Congress

The United States Congress is the Bicameralism legislature of the Federal government of the United States of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives....
's reversal of that portion of the Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott v. Sandford

Dred Scott v. Sandford, , was a decision by the United States Supreme Court that ruled that people of African descent Slavery in the United States and held as History of slavery in the United States, or their descendants?whether or not they were slaves?were not legal persons and could never be citizens of the United States, and that the U...
 decision that declared that African American
African American

African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the Black people populations of Africa....
s were not and could not become citizens of the United States or enjoy any of the privileges and immunities of citizenship. The Civil Rights Act of 1866
Civil Rights Act of 1866

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 is a piece of United States legislation that gave further rights to the freed slavery after the end of the American Civil War....
 had already granted U.S. citizenship to all people born in the United States; the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment enshrined this principle in the Constitution in order to stop the Supreme Court from ruling it unconstitutional for want of congressional authority to pass such a law, or a future Congress from altering it by a bare majority vote.

Senate debate The text of the Citizenship Clause was first offered in the Senate
United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism United States Congress, the lower house being the United States House of Representatives....
 as an amendment to Section 1 of the joint resolution
Joint resolution

In the Congress of the United States, a joint resolution is a legislative measure that requires approval by the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives and is presented to the President for his approval or disapproval, in exactly the same case as a bill....
 as passed by the House
United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as "the House", is one of the bicameralism of the United States Congress; the other is the United States Senate....
.

During the original debate over the amendment Senator Jacob M. Howard
Jacob M. Howard

Jacob Merritt Howard was a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the U.S. state of Michigan during and after the American Civil War....
 of Michigan—the author of the citizenship clause—described the clause as excluding not only Indians but “persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers.” Howard also stated the word jurisdiction meant the United States possessed a “full and complete jurisdiction” over the person described in the amendment.






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Encyclopedia


The citizenship clause (also known as the naturalization clause) refers to a provision, in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the post-American Civil War Reconstruction Amendments that was first intended to secure the rights of former Slavery in the United States....
 at section one, clause 1. This clause represented Congress
United States Congress

The United States Congress is the Bicameralism legislature of the Federal government of the United States of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives....
's reversal of that portion of the Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott v. Sandford

Dred Scott v. Sandford, , was a decision by the United States Supreme Court that ruled that people of African descent Slavery in the United States and held as History of slavery in the United States, or their descendants?whether or not they were slaves?were not legal persons and could never be citizens of the United States, and that the U...
 decision that declared that African American
African American

African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the Black people populations of Africa....
s were not and could not become citizens of the United States or enjoy any of the privileges and immunities of citizenship. The Civil Rights Act of 1866
Civil Rights Act of 1866

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 is a piece of United States legislation that gave further rights to the freed slavery after the end of the American Civil War....
 had already granted U.S. citizenship to all people born in the United States; the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment enshrined this principle in the Constitution in order to stop the Supreme Court from ruling it unconstitutional for want of congressional authority to pass such a law, or a future Congress from altering it by a bare majority vote.

Text


Amendment XIV, Section 1, Clause 1:

Senate debate

The text of the Citizenship Clause was first offered in the Senate
United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism United States Congress, the lower house being the United States House of Representatives....
 as an amendment to Section 1 of the joint resolution
Joint resolution

In the Congress of the United States, a joint resolution is a legislative measure that requires approval by the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives and is presented to the President for his approval or disapproval, in exactly the same case as a bill....
 as passed by the House
United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as "the House", is one of the bicameralism of the United States Congress; the other is the United States Senate....
.

During the original debate over the amendment Senator Jacob M. Howard
Jacob M. Howard

Jacob Merritt Howard was a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the U.S. state of Michigan during and after the American Civil War....
 of Michigan—the author of the citizenship clause—described the clause as excluding not only Indians but “persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers.” Howard also stated the word jurisdiction meant the United States possessed a “full and complete jurisdiction” over the person described in the amendment. Such meaning precluded citizenship to any person who was, in even the slightest respect, beholden to any sovereignty other than a U.S. state or the federal government.

Birthright citizenship

The provisions in Section 1 have been interpreted to the effect that children born on United States soil, with very few exceptions, are U.S. citizens. This type of guarantee—legally termed jus soli
Jus soli

Jus soli , or birthright citizenship, is a right by which nationality or citizenship can be recognised to any individual born in the territory of the related state....
, or "right of the territory"— does not exist in most of Western Europe, Asia or the Middle East, although it is part of English common law
Common law

Common law refers to law and the corresponding Legal systems of the world developed through legal opinion of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through statute law or Executive ....
 and is common in the Americas. The phrase "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" indicates that there are some exceptions to the universal rule that birth on U.S. soil automatically grants citizenship.

Two Supreme Court precedents were set by the cases of Elk v. Wilkins
Elk v. Wilkins

Elk v. Wilkins, Case citation , was a United States Supreme Court case.John Elk, a Native Americans in the United States was born on an Indian reservation and subsequently moved to non-reservation U.S....
 and United States v. Wong Kim Ark
United States v. Wong Kim Ark

United States v. Wong Kim Ark, , was a Supreme Court of the United States decision that set an important legal Stare decisis about what determines United States citizenship....
. Elk v. Wilkins established that Native American tribes represented independent political powers with no allegiance to the United States, and that their peoples were under a special jurisdiction of the United States. Children born to these Native American tribes therefore did not qualify for automatic citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment. Indian tribes that paid taxes were exempt from this ruling; their peoples were already citizens by an earlier act of Congress, and all non-citizen Native Americans (called "Indians") were subsequently made citizens by the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
Indian Citizenship Act of 1924

The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, also known as the Snyder Act, was proposed by Representative Homer P. Snyder of New York and granted full U.S....
.

In Wong Kim Ark the Supreme Court held that under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a man born within the United States to foreigners (in that case, Chinese citizens) who were lawfully residing in the United States and who were not employed in a diplomatic or other official capacity by a foreign power, was a citizen of the United States.

Under these two rulings, the following persons born in the United States are not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States, and thus do not qualify for automatic citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment:

  • Children born to foreign diplomats


  • Children born to enemy forces in hostile occupation of the United States


  • Children born to Native Americans
    Native Americans in the United States

    Native Americans in the United States are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii....
     who are members of tribes not taxed (These were later given full citizenship by the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
    Indian Citizenship Act of 1924

    The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, also known as the Snyder Act, was proposed by Representative Homer P. Snyder of New York and granted full U.S....
    .)


The following persons born in the United States are explicitly citizens:

  • Children born to U.S. citizens


  • Children born to aliens who are lawfully inside the United States (resident or visitor), with the intention of amicably interacting with its people and obeying its laws


The Court in Wong Kim Ark did not explicitly decide whether U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants are "subject to the jurisdiction of the United States" (it was not necessary to answer this question since Wong Kim Ark's parents were legally present in the United States at the time of his birth).

Loss of citizenship

The Fourteenth Amendment does not provide any procedure for loss of United States citizenship. Under the Supreme Court precedent of Afroyim v. Rusk
Afroyim v. Rusk

Afroyim v. Rusk, Case citation , was a United States Supreme Court decision that set an important legal Stare decisis that a United States citizen cannot be deprived of American citizenship involuntarily....
, loss of U.S. citizenship is possible only under the following circumstances:

  • Fraud in the naturalization process. Technically this is not loss of citizenship, but rather a voiding of the purported naturalization and a declaration that the immigrant never was a U.S. citizen.
  • Voluntary relinquishment of citizenship. This may be accomplished either through renunciation procedures specially established by the State Department or through other actions (e.g., treason
    Treason

    In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of loyalty to one's sovereignty or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife ....
    ) which demonstrate an intention to give up U.S. citizenship. Such an act of expatriation
    Expatriate

    An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently Residency in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence....
     must be accompanied by an intent to terminate American citizenship.


Right to travel


In Saenz v. Roe
Saenz v. Roe

Saenz v. Roe, Case citation , was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States discussed how the constitutional right to travel from one state to another is a part of American jurisprudence....
, the Supreme Court held that this clause protects an aspect of the right to travel. Specifically, the Saenz Court said that the Citizenship Clause protects a citizen's right to resettle in other states and then be treated equally:

The Saenz Court also mentioned the majority opinion in the Slaughterhouse Cases
Slaughterhouse Cases

The Slaughter-House Cases, Case citation , were a series of cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States....
, which had stated that "a citizen of the United States can, of his own volition, become a citizen of any State of the Union by a bona fide residence therein, with the same rights as other citizens of that State."

Natural-born citizens

The original unamended Constitution required (and still requires) that a candidate for President of the United States
President of the United States

The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition....
 be a "natural-born citizen". This raises the question of whether the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment affects eligibility to the American presidency, and also whether Congress can affect eligibility to the American presidency. According to the US Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual
US Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual

The Foreign Affairs Manual is published by the United States Department of State and can be accessed on the State Department's web site. It contains the functional statements, organizational responsibilities, and authorities of each of the major components of the U.S....
: "the fact that someone is a natural born citizen pursuant to a statute does not necessarily imply that he or she is such a citizen for Constitutional purposes."

Dissenting in the case of United States v. Wong Kim Ark
United States v. Wong Kim Ark

United States v. Wong Kim Ark, , was a Supreme Court of the United States decision that set an important legal Stare decisis about what determines United States citizenship....
, Chief Justice Melville Fuller
Melville Fuller

Melville Weston Fuller was the Chief Justice of the United States between 1888 and 1910....
 (joined by Justice John Marshall Harlan
John Marshall Harlan

'John Marshall Harlan' was an American Supreme Court of the United States Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He is most notable as the lone dissenter in the famous 1896 case of Plessy v....
) wrote about the possible effect of the Citizenship Clause upon presidential eligibility:

Considering the circumstances surrounding the framing of the constitution, I submit that it is unreasonable to conclude that 'natural born citizen' applied to everybody born within the geographical tract known as the United States, irrespective of circumstances; and that the children of foreigners, happening to be born to them while passing through the country, whether of royal parentage or not, or whether of the Mongolian, Malay, or other race, were eligible to the presidency, while children of our citizens, born abroad, were not.


The majority opinion by Justice Horace Gray
Horace Gray

Horace Gray was an United States of America jurist who ultimately served on the United States Supreme Court. He was an active in public service and a great philanthropist to the City of Boston....
 in United States v. Wong Kim Ark did not explicitly disagree with this comment by Fuller and Harlan, and instead merely observed that: "The constitution nowhere defines the meaning of these words ["citizen" and "natural born citizen"], either by way of inclusion or of exclusion, except in so far as this is done by the affirmative declaration that 'all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.'" This observation by Gray about the term "natural-born citizen" was obiter dicta, since the case did not involve any controversy about presidential eligibility.

External links


  • Eastman, John. , Heritage Foundation, Legal Memorandum #18 (2006-03-30).