14th Amendment

Why We are Still Debating Birthright Citizenship

by Martha S. Jones

Opposition to birthright citizenship has, historically and today, reflected opposition to the idea of equal membership in the political community of the nation and has been inextricable from the idea that white Americans should be privileged citizens, argues the leading historian of the subject. 

New Evidence: Rehnquist Pretty Much OK with Plessy v. Ferguson

by Richard Hasen and Dahlia Lithwick

A 1952 memo that Rehnquist wrote defending "separate but equal" was raised during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings and dismissed as work-for-hire. It is now clear that he supported the narrow interpretation of the 14th Amendment that the current court majority hopes to use to undermine civil rights. 

Why Everyone Born in the US is a Citizen, and Why it Matters

by Amanda Frost

In upholding birthright citizenship in the case of US v. Wong Kim Ark, the court invoked English common law, rather than claims to citizenship rights and freedom by escaped slaves, as the foundation of the 14th Amendment's definition of citizenship. This makes the principle vulnerable when it should be unassailable. 

The 14th Amendment Should Put a Stop to Debt Ceiling Hostage Taking

by Eric Foner

The provisions of the Reconstruction Amendments dealing with the national debt were tied to the nation's short-lived commitment to interracial democracy in the South; today they offer the Biden administration a possible tool to use if Congress pushes to the brink of default. 

Eric Foner: Originalism and the Color-Blind Constitution are Intellectually Indefensible

The historian says that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was on the right track to argue that the meaning of the 14th Amendment must be understood in context of its authors' intention to end the race-based subjugation of Black people. 

SCOTUS Affirmative Action Cases Hinge on History of Brown and the 14th Amendment

by Linda Greenhouse

Neither Brown nor the 14th Amendment were driven by a belief in a "colorblind" Constitution; instead, they were rooted in the historically specific context of racial oppression. The plaintiffs in two cases before the court want to obscure that history, says veteran court reporter Linda Greenhouse.

SCOTUS Declines to Hear Challenge to Citizenship Law Disadvantaging American Samoans

Residents of US territories are able to receive birthright citizenship if an act of Congress grants it to them. While Congress's refusal to do so for residents of American Samoa has clear racist roots, the Court declined to hear a case challenging this exclusion. 

A Substantive Due Process Explainer: What Was the Basic Weakness of Roe?

The application of the 14th Amendment to extend broad guarantees of individual rights is recent; the history of the doctrine of substantive due process has more frequently been used to protect the interests of corporations and the powerful. It's time for a new legal approach.

Will the Dems Use 14th Amendment to Punish States for Voting Rights Crackdowns?

Congress is entitled under the Amendment to strip states of representation if they don't maintain a republican form of government. Do proposed voting rights restrictions and other red-state legislation qualify? 

Rep. Cawthorn Lawyer's Defense against 14th Amendment Disqualification? Confederate Amnesty Act

It is perhaps fitting that Cawthorn, who faces a challenge to his eligibility for office based on his endorsement of the march which led to the attack on the Capitol, would invoke an amnesty for Confederates as a defense. 

The Lack of Federal Voting Rights Protections Returns Us to the Pre-Civil War Era

by Kate Masur

New vote suppression bills in multiple states threaten to return the United States not to the Jim Crow era but to the period before the Civil War and Reconstruction when civil and political rights were protected or denied according to state politics. 

Congress Must Invoke the 14th Amendment to Stop Trump from Running Again

by Tom Coleman and John C. Danforth

A former Congressman and former Senator, both Republicans from Missouri, demand that Congress invoke the 14th Amendment's provisions on insurrection to bar Donald Trump from holding office in the future. 

Impeachment May Not Work. Here’s the Next Best Way to Dump Trump

by Eric Foner

The 14th Amendment empowers Congress to bar persons involved in insurrection against the United States from holding office. This can't remove Trump, but it can stop him (and anyone found to have plotted the Capitol rioting) from returning to office. 

Constitutional Textualism and Congressional Debate Over the 14th Amendment

by Alan J. Singer

Supreme Court decisions based on text without context have been responsible for some of the greatest perversions of justice in United States history, mostly around denying the scope of authority the 14th Amendment grants to the government to enforce civil equality.

Birtherism 2.0

by Matthew Yglesias

Right-wing challenges to Kamala Harris's eligibility for the presidency depend on a legal argument that American-born children of immigrants are a lesser category of citizen. There is no basis under the Constitution for this. 

Of Course Kamala Harris is a Citizen

by Derek Litvak

John Eastman's claims that Kamala Harris is not a natural-born U.S. citizen fly in the face of 14th Amendment jurisprudence and Eastman's own prior defenses of Ted Cruz's eligibility for the presidency. 

Citizenship, the 14th Amendment, and Trump’s War on Undocumented Immigrants

by Alan J. Singer

Recent attacks on Kamala Harris's citizenship and eligibility to serve as Vice President depend on willful misreading of the Fourteenth Amendment and ignorance of the specific racist injustices it was written to prevent. 

US Congress could Use Reconstruction-Era Civil Rights Powers to Protect Black Lives Today

by Richard Johnson

The U.S. House of Representatives could use a provision of the 14th Amendment to strip congressional representation from states that suppress the voting rights of black residents. 

Restricting Automatic Citizenship to Children Born to Americans Serving Abroad Is Only the Latest Effort by Trump to Dismantle Birthright Citizenship

by Derek Litvak

Trump and conservatives are attempting a wholesale constitutional revolution by dismantling birthright citizenship. Here's why birthright citizenship is so historically important. 

William Barr Needs a History Lesson

by Derek Litvak

When conservatives claim birthright citizenship is not a part of the Constitution, they are ignoring America’s long history of slavery, discrimination, and segregation.