Birthright citizenship—the principle that a person is granted citizenship by virtue of being born within a country’s territory—has a long and complex history in the United States. Its development was shaped by British legal traditions, early American law, racial exclusion, and finally, constitutional reform in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Nevertheless, bills have been introduced — though never passed — to limit or redefine birthright citizenship, such as the Birthright Citizenship Act introduced multiple times in Congress. The current iteration, The Birthright Citizenship Act of 2025 would restrict citizenship in the United States by attempting to redefine who is considered “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. for the purposes of birthright citizenship, as currently defined by the 14th Amendment.

This is the strategy the Trump Administration is hanging their hat on as they attempt to force change and deny legal citizenship to mostly children whose ethnic background hails from south of the US border. Trumps attempt of using an executive order to effect change was doomed to fail, but the Supreme Court may be forced to take up the issue and make a difinitive ruling. Regardless of how the Supreme Court rules, however, one thing is certain. We live in interesting times.

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