Cato Institute Hosts Online Event on Birthright Citizenship Case

A Cato Institute online event last week addressed the Supreme Court case Trump v. Barbara concerning birthright citizenship. The discussion focused on legal arguments about the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and its application to children of undocumented immigrants.

Participants included an immigration law scholar from UC Irvine and a legal historian from the University of Toledo. A Cato Institute representative moderated the session.

One presentation referenced an article in Lawfare that examined how administration rationales for denying birthright citizenship could affect descendants of freed slaves if applied consistently. The same presentation noted that Justice Amy Coney Barrett raised this issue during Supreme Court oral arguments last month.

A separate portion of the presentation referenced a Volokh Conspiracy blog post that described birthright citizenship as a second-best policy compared with other approaches to migration and citizenship. The full video of the event is available through a Cato Institute link.