04/02/2026
During the Reconstruction era, following the end of the Civil War, the United States Constitution was ratified to include the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. These amendments, adopted between 1865-1870, intended to grant new civil protections to the formerly enslaved and guarantee their freedom through the inalienable rights granted to them by birth on U.S. soil.
The 14th amendment's Citizenship Clause was and remains a crucial component of our country's Constitutional history and justice system, for it made certain that those born in this country cannot be denied the rights and privileges afforded to other citizens. This clause reversed the racist 1857 Dred Scott decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which denied citizenship to Black people, effectively made slavery the law of the land, and catalyzed the Civil War a few years later.
Perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court case argued today seeking to challenge this very amendment is a full circle moment. It is the latest attempt - brought on by a racist and metastasizing White Nationalist outgrowth of America's long storied past - to point the legal crosshairs at a new ethnic and racial group deemed dispensable by the xenophobic ruling class.
Not only will this flimsy attempt fail again on its own merits, but it will fail because diverse people across this country showed up to say in one unified voice, "No."
