Source: Washington Post
by Ramesh Ponnuru
“‘Subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ is a legal term of art that requires some historical research to unpack. Cotton’s theory that it required ‘allegiance and obedience’ is based on an English case from 1608. But that case affirmed that even if a foreigner were in England only temporarily, he would have a duty of obedience while he was there — and any child he had there would be ‘a natural born subject’ of the king. In 1854, Secretary of State William Marcy wrote that birthright citizenship ‘is presumed’ except for children born in ‘foreign legations.’ The Supreme Court disturbed that understanding when, in the 1857 Dred Scott case, it excluded all Black people too. But the 14th Amendment restored the earlier understanding, and by 1871 Secretary of State Hamilton Fish was writing that the five words now in dispute were ‘probably intended to exclude the children of foreign ministers.'” (12/12/25)