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WASHINGTON, D.C. – America First Legal (AFL), in partnership with Boyden Gray PLLC, has filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of eighteen members of the House Judiciary Committee—led by Chairman Jim Jordan—urging the Court to defend the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment and the limits it places on U.S. citizenship.
AFL’s brief argues that allegiance is a reciprocal bond requiring loyalty from the individual and consent from the sovereign. When that consent is broken, citizenship cannot be claimed. The Fourteenth Amendment enshrines this principle, granting citizenship only to those born or naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction—meaning total, exclusive allegiance and lawful presence, not mere location.
The Framers said it plainly: the Citizenship Clause does not include “aliens or anyone owing allegiance to a foreign sovereignty.” Courts and scholars ever since have agreed. Citizenship is not automatic, nor is it a right: it is earned through allegiance, consent, and law.
AFL’s brief emphasizes that there is also widespread agreement that children born in the United States to foreign ambassadors or invading soldiers are not U.S. citizens—not because those parents have immunity, but because they owe allegiance elsewhere. The same principle applies to children of aliens unlawfully present in the country: their parents owe allegiance to another nation and are here without the consent of the United States. This is not a question of compassion, but of constitutional order. Citizenship cannot be born of defiance, and allegiance cannot exist without consent.
AFL’s brief further makes clear that only Congress may confer citizenship. As the Supreme Court has long held, no court or executive agency can invent citizenship outside those bounds. The Fourteenth Amendment does not confer citizenship on the children of illegal aliens, and Congress has never granted it by statute. Thus, it may not be conferred upon the children of aliens, regardless of birthplace.
“Our history and tradition stand for the proposition that citizenship depends upon a public determination of allegiance. Being subject to the country’s jurisdiction is not a default presumption. Instead, citizenship is a duty, a bond, and a privilege reserved for those who are subject to our laws and our sovereignty into an entitlement,” said Dan Epstein, Vice President of America First Legal.
AFL, representing allies in the House Judiciary Committee, is urging the Supreme Court to restore the true meaning of the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment. U.S. citizenship is a privilege, not a right, and the touchstone is total allegiance to the United States, not mere location or subjection to its laws.
Read the full brief here.
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