How Law Professors Can Approach the New Supreme Court Citizenship Ruling
Legal scholars outline a modular approach for teaching the Supreme Court's recent decision on birthright citizenship, dividing the lengthy opinion into manageable excerpts.
Law educators are offered a structured method for presenting the Supreme Court's latest ruling on the Citizenship Clause, a case the author compares to Heller in its novelty. Because the opinion spans almost two hundred pages with dissenting opinions three times longer, the proposal splits the text into six excerpts totaling about sixty pages for two class periods, or three excerpts for a single session. The first excerpt contrasts the majority's adoption of a modified English common-law rule with the dissent's alternative interpretation.
The next three examine textual analysis, the 1866 Civil Rights Act context, congressional debates, and post-ratification executive practice. A fifth segment revisits United States v. Wong Kim Ark, while the final part presents Justice Kavanaugh's unique argument that Congress can modify citizenship scope via the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, a view not shared by his colleagues. The author situates the case after Plessy in a Fourteenth Amendment chapter and invites feedback on the teaching strategy.
Why it matters
Understanding how to teach this landmark decision helps students grasp evolving citizenship law and its constitutional foundations.
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