Prof. Jill Hasday Interviewed by MPR About Supreme Court’s Birthright Citizenship Ruling

Professor Jill Hasday was interviewed by MPR News about the U.S. Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship ruling that was handed down today. The court upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens. In the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights—to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land,’ ... We keep that promise today.” Prof. Hasday said the constitutional language is straightforward. She said, “This clause, just stated most clearly, says that virtually everyone born in the United States is a citizen at birth, a birthright citizenship, regardless of whether their parents are citizens or not.”