Senator Rand Paul expressed his disappointment Tuesday after the Supreme Court ruled to uphold birthright citizenship.
The senator had been pushing for a constitutional amendment to clarify the meaning of the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the Fourteenth Amendment.
The proposed amendment would limit automatic citizenship at birth to cases where at least one parent is a U.S. citizen or national, a lawful permanent resident residing in the United States, or an alien with lawful immigration status who is performing active service in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Paul previously stated that the current interpretation of American law, which grants automatic citizenship to anyone born on American soil, regardless of their parents' immigration status, is “wrong and not at all the intent of those who wrote the 14th Amendment."
The debate over birthright citizenship centers on the text of the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War.
Paul argues that the clause was primarily intended to secure citizenship for freed slaves and to overturn the Dred Scott decision, and that the “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” language was understood at the time to exclude children of foreign diplomats, invading armies, and others who did not owe full and complete allegiance to the United States.
