Trump breaks US precedent by attending birthright citizenship hearing at Supreme Court
France24 →US President Donald Trump became the first sitting president to attend oral arguments at the Supreme Court on Wednesday as it weighed his bid to restrict birthright citizenship.
American Citizenship
![Evening public ledger. (Philadelphia [Pa.]), February 13, 1917 — front page](/img/service:ndnp:pst:batch_pst_davey_ver01:data:sn83045211:00237287782:1917021301:0328)
# The Fourteenth Constitutional Amendment The Fourteenth Constitutional Amendment states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." However, this is so construed as to mean that a boy born in this country of alien parents does not attain citizenship until he arrives at the age of twenty-one years and chooses American citizenship in preference to that of his father. State Department officials are reported as having made this ruling in the case of the O'Donnell children, born in Philadelphia, of British parents, and killed in the sinking of the liner California. Many authorities on international law dispute this ruling.
Original Newspaper Page
![Evening public ledger. (Philadelphia [Pa.]), February 13, 1917 — front page](https://tile.loc.gov/image-services/iiif/service:ndnp:pst:batch_pst_davey_ver01:data:sn83045211:00237287782:1917021301:0328/full/full/0/default.jpg)
Enlarge → What Happened Next
Birthright citizenship in the United States
Cable Act of 1922
In 1922, the Cable Act was passed which guaranteed women independent citizenship if their spouse was eligible for naturalization. Ineligibility applied to anyone who was neither white nor of African descent.
Wikipedia →Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 declared Native Americans born within the United States are US citizens. Although the Fourteenth Amendment provides that any person born in the United States is a citizen, there is an exception for persons not 'subject to the jurisdiction' of the federal government. This language was generally taken to mean members of various tribes that were treated as separate sovereignties: they were citizens of their tribal nations.
Wikipedia →Birthright citizenship in the United States
The Equal Nationality Act of 1934
The Equal Nationality Act of 1934 allowed a married woman with children who had been born abroad to transmit her citizenship to her children, provided the mother had resided in the United States before the child was born. Previously only fathers were able to transmit derivative citizenship to their offspring.
Wikipedia →