Birthright Citizenship, the Common Law, and the 39th Congress (opens in new tab)

Ben Keener and I have posted a new paper on the original meaning of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This one provides an extended analysis of the English common law origins of the native birth rule and of the debates in the 39th Congress over the meaning of the Citizenship Clause that they adopted as part of the Fourteenth Amendment.