Anna O. Law: History Shows Why Birthright Citizenship is so Important

Anna O. Law in Time (History Shows Why Birthright Citizenship is so Important) offers her thoughts on the history abnd purpose of birthright citizenship in the Fourteenth Amendment.  The punch lines:

“The overriding goal of the framers of the birthright citizenship clause (and the Reconstruction Amendments generally) was to include African Americans who had been left out of the U.S. polity⎯to form a more perfect union. Although the U.S. certainly still has gradations of belonging, the Fourteenth Amendment’s birthright citizenship clause’s broad inclusivity is well-established and indisputable, and it should be a point of national pride, which represents Americans’ commitment to a multi-racial democracy. That requires strongly rejecting any attempt reinstate the exclusion and discrimination which spurred its creation.”

KJ