Birthright Citizenship 14th Amendment

Birthright Citizenship 14th Amendment:

The idea of birthright citizenship in the U.S. — that anyone born on U.S. soil is automatically a citizen — is closely tied to the history of enslaved African Americans and their legal status after the Civil War.

Origin:

Before the Civil War, enslaved African Americans were not considered U.S. citizens. In fact, the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court decision of 1857 ruled that Black people, whether free or enslaved, could not be citizens of the United States. Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote that Black people had "no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

After the Civil War ended in 1865, the country had to figure out what to do about the status of millions of newly freed African Americans.

The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, was the major legal breakthrough. It was written largely in response to the Dred Scott decision. The first sentence of Section 1 reads:

"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."

This guaranteed that formerly enslaved people and their descendants were citizens by virtue of their birth on American soil. It was a revolutionary change — it embedded birthright citizenship into the Constitution.

Key Points:

The 14th Amendment was designed specifically to protect African Americans.in 

It ensured that no state could deny citizenship based on race, ancestry, or former enslaved status.

It overturned Dred Scott permanently.

Birthright citizenship later expanded beyond African Americans to all people born in the U.S., including children of immigrants.

In Short:

Birthright citizenship in America was born out of the fight to recognize enslaved African Americans as full human brings and citizens. It was a direct response to a legal system that had tried to permanently exclude them.