Ilya Somin in Reason on Birthright Citizenship

SRL’s Charter Member Ilya Somin was in Reason highlighting the historic link between slavery and birthright citizenship.

Justice Barrett is getting at the point that if – as the administration argues – children of people who entered the US illegally are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States (which they have to be to qualify for birthright citizenship), then the same is true of the many thousands of slaves brought in illegally after the US banned the slave trade in 1808, and their children. Similarly, as she suggests, if – as the administration claims – children of people who lack exclusive “allegiance” to the United States don’t qualify for birthright citizenship, then that must be true of the children of slaves brought in illegally. After all, these slaves likely felt little if any allegiance to the US authorities complicit in their enslavement, and under the administration’s logic, they and their children also were not entitled to birthright citizenship. I would add this point applies even to slaves imported legally. They, too, might well have felt or “owed” allegiance to the rulers of their homelands, and certainly had no allegiance to the United States, the nation that held them in bondage.

Read the full article here.