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The case highlighted disagreements over the precise meaning of one phrase in the
Citizenship Clause—namely, the provision that a person born in the United States who is "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" acquires automatic citizenship. The Supreme Court's majority concluded that this phrase
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U.S. citizens. He challenged the government's refusal to recognize his citizenship, and the
Supreme Court ruled in his favor, holding that the citizenship language in the Fourteenth Amendment encompassed the circumstances of his birth and could not be limited in its effect by an act of
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referred to being required to obey U.S. law; on this basis, they interpreted the language of the
Fourteenth Amendment in a way that granted U.S. citizenship to children born of foreigners (a concept known as
112:(inheriting citizenship from a parent)—an interpretation which, in the minority's view, would have excluded "the children of foreigners, happening to be born to them while passing through the country". (
106:. The court's dissenters argued that being subject to the jurisdiction of the United States meant not being subject to any foreign power—that is, not being claimed as a citizen by another country via
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and residence in the United States, and are there carrying on business, and are not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the
Emperor of China", automatically became a
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which held that "a child born in the United States, of parents of
Chinese descent, who, at the time of his birth, are subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent
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75:Wong Kim Ark, who was born in
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44:, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), was a
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131:Law Portal selected cases
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66:Citizenship Clause
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