If a person is subject to the jurisdiction of both the United States and Mexico, are they subject to the jurisdiction of the United States?

The answer — logically, linguistically, and legally — is yes. And that will spell near-certain doom for Donald Trump’s effort to decimate our century-and-a-half-year-old constitutional principle known as birthright citizenship, which goes before the U.S. Supreme Court for oral argument on Wednesday.

Birthright citizenship comes from the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, a few years after the Civil War: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” Ever since then, it has been broadly understood to mean that a child born here is a U.S. citizen, regardless of the parents’ status and with only the slimmest of exceptions. The doctrine originally served the practical purpose of ensuring citizenship for the children of recently freed Black slaves — and the distinctly American ethic that the status of the parent need not restrict the child.

But on his first day back in office in January 2025, Trump issued an executive order bearing the Orwellian title “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship” that would vastly reduce the scope of Birthright Citizenship (but not “end” it altogether, contrary to certain imprecise reporting). Under Trump’s construction, a child born in the U.S. would automatically become a citizen only if at least one parent was present in the U.S. legally or permanently. A child born here to parents without legal status would not become a citizen.........

© Daily Intelligencer