The Trump administration argued in a court filing that the 14th Amendment excludes indigenous people (or Native American, Indian) from U.S. citizenship.
The filing was an effort to stop a federal judge from blocking Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship on the grounds that it violates the 14th Amendment. That amendment states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
In today’s filing, the Justice Department writes that “Under the plain terms of the Clause, birth in the United States does not by itself entitle a person to citizenship. The person must also be ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States.”
The DOJ also cited Elk v. Wilkins, a Supreme Court case in which the court decided that “because members of Indian tribes owe ‘immediate allegiance’ to their tribes, they are not ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are not constitutionally entitled to Citizenship.”
Judge John Coughenour of the US District Court for the Western District of Washington all but laughed at the filing and placed a hold on the executive order.
I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar could state unequivocally that is a constitutional order. It boggles my mind… I’ve been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is.
Judge John Coughenour
For over 150 years, the U.S. government has recognized Native Americans who are citizens of their respective tribes as also being citizens of the United States.
