The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on April 1 in Barbara v. Trump, the case challenging President Trump’s executive order restricting automatic birthright citizenship for children born to those present illegally or on temporary visas. A ruling is expected before summer recess. Before the decision lands, the constitutional text and legislative record deserve a clear-eyed review.

Citizenship, properly understood, is not geography. It is allegiance. The 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens.” The five words that are at the center of the debate are: “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Senator Jacob Howard, the clause’s primary drafter, stated on the Senate floor in 1866 that the provision excluded foreigners and aliens. Senator Lyman Trumbull agreed: “subject to the jurisdiction” meant “not owing allegiance to anybody else.” That is a documented congressional record.

The modern interpretation derives from United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), which held that a child born to lawful, permanent residents was a citizen. That holding was correct on its facts. It did not extend automatic citizenship to children of tourists or unauthorized entrants—administrative practice did that, without legislative authorization, over the following century. The 1884 decision in........

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