"Excluding Indians": Trump admin questions Native Americans' birthright citizenship in court
Source: Salon
Published January 23, 2025 11:43AM (EST)
In the Trump administrations arguments defending his order to suspend birthright citizenship, the Justice Department called into question the citizenship of Native Americans born in the United States, citing a 19th-century law that excluded Native Americans from birthright citizenship.
In a case on Trump's birthright citizenship executive order coming out of Washington, Justice Department attorneys quote the 14th Amendment, which reads 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, and hang their one of their arguments on the phrase subject to the jurisdiction thereof.
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 filing reads. The Justice Department then goes on to cite the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which predates the 14th Amendment by two years. The Justice Department attorneys specifically cite a section of the act that notes that all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.
The Trump administration then goes on to argue that the 14th Amendments language the phrase subject to the jurisdiction thereof is best understood to exclude the same individuals who were excluded by the Act i.e., those who are subject to any foreign power and Indians not taxed.
Read more: https://www.salon.com/2025/01/23/excluding-indians-admin-questions-native-americans-birthright-citizenship-in/?in_brief=true
Lovie777
(15,942 posts)Lovie777
(15,942 posts)and shithole need to be impeached.
NotHardly
(1,523 posts)tirebiter
(2,610 posts)sop
(12,181 posts)And he's just getting started swinging his wrecking ball. Someone please make it stop.
bdamomma
(67,218 posts)burn it all down. He's a sick fuck, and a felon. Again, he is making a lot of enemies that's why he pardoned the insurrectionists. He's nothing but a thug. I hope the oligarchs and the MAGA crew eat their own.
LastDemocratInSC
(3,920 posts)Trump is a useful idiot for the billionaires who push and shove to be the last person to speak to him before any decision is made. He has no grasp of the issues he is facing so he bumbles along like Navin Johnson in "The Jerk" making one bad decision after another. He's a walking talking Monty Python skit.
Trueblue Texan
(3,122 posts)...this is not true of TSF.
brush
(58,591 posts)on who should be citizens here.
muriel_volestrangler
(102,865 posts)That's pathetic. I wonder if these lawyers ever had an idea they'd have integrity, or did they sign up for law school thinking "I'm doing this for the white supremacist cash!!!"?
underpants
(188,059 posts)Are they saying that because one or both parents are still citizens of another country this doesnt apply? What about dual citizens?
Somebodys been way too long and way too hard about this. Not him of course. This is is some think tank lawyer whom Im sure everyone thinks is so smart for coming up with this.
BTW - I saw a headline that a court has put a hold on this.
muriel_volestrangler
(102,865 posts)The 1866 act does seem to have meant "Native Americans aren't citizens, and neither are those 'subject to another power'" so they might say under that dual citizen parents didn't count, but since, for the constitutional amendment, they changed it to "subject to US law", it meant everyone in the USA (including those with no right to be there).
underpants
(188,059 posts)They are still under the US jurisdiction.
I was trying to wrap my head around their thinking.
LeftInTX
(31,902 posts)all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens, of every race and ..
Then, they probably pivoted to the 14th Amendment.
The 14th Amendment did not give birthright citizenship to Native Americans born on Reservations etc. Native Americans did not obtain full US citizenship until 1924 and it was done via an Act of Congress.
Trump's EO does not apply to Native Americans. They are showing that Native Americans were "non-citizens during the drafting of the 14th amendment" and were not granted birthright citizenship until 1924 via an Act of Congress.
LeftInTX
(31,902 posts)And they are using the historical NA case to justify it.
I'm sure these are heritage foundation lawyers arguing this case.
TomSlick
(12,073 posts)If, as argued, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 is inconsistent with the 14th Amendment, it was superseded by the 14th Amendment which became effective in 1868. The Indian Citizenship Act of 1824 really only stated what had been the law since 1868.
The language of the 14th Amendment is simple and clear. With the exception of children born in the country with diplomatic status (i.e., the children of diplomats), and therefore not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the US, all persons born in the country are citizens.
Judge Coughenour was correct that Trump's executive order is blatantly unconstitutional.
LeftInTX
(31,902 posts)cannot give birth to natural-borne citizens. In 1884, the Supreme Court decided, after the 14th amendment was adopted, that Native Americans were not US citizens, hence the 1924 law was needed!
What the lawyer was today not doing was trying to remove citizenship from Native Americans.
Of course the judge made the right decision!!
Salon is making it sound like Trump is trying to get rid of Native American citizenship because a lawyer was quoting old laws word for word.
Many of the these executive orders were written by the heritage foundation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk_v._Wilkins
Elk v. Wilkins, 112 U.S. 94 (1884), was a United States Supreme Court landmark 1884 decision[1][2] with respect to the citizenship status of Indians.[3]
John Elk, a Winnebago Indian, was born on an Indian reservation within the territorial bounds of United States. He later resided off-reservation in Omaha, Nebraska, where he renounced his former tribal allegiance and claimed birthright citizenship by virtue of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.[4] The case came about after Elk tried to register to vote on April 5, 1880, and was denied by Charles Wilkins, the named defendant, who was registrar of voters of the Fifth ward of the City of Omaha.
In a 72 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that even though Elk was born in the United States, he was not a citizen because he owed allegiance to his tribe when he was born rather than to the United States, and therefore was not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States when he was born. The United States Congress later enacted the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, which established citizenship for Indians previously excluded by the Constitution.
LetMyPeopleVote
(157,107 posts)I am having trouble seeing how any attorney who passed the bar would make this argument.
Link to tweet
Ray Bruns
(4,868 posts)That wAs your first mistake, thinking that they are thinking.
underpants
(188,059 posts)AZSkiffyGeek
(12,677 posts)That they aren't breaking the law by being here.
underpants
(188,059 posts)Theres no cohesion. This first week has been a Trump speech. A rambling incoherent nonsensical mess. But they did have everything ready to go from day one. None of it made any sense at all let alone that there was no consideration of ramifications of these actions on each other.
Bettie
(17,590 posts)to? Seriously, these people are fucking evil.
It's three days past him being installed and I'm exhausted from the fuckery.
VMA131Marine
(4,763 posts)and refuse to give Native Americans work permits.
bdamomma
(67,218 posts)repeat history and go after the "white man". I wouldn't stop them either.
Stargazer99
(3,104 posts)as a foreign country....sheesh what gaul
LymphocyteLover
(7,149 posts)Irish_Dem
(62,144 posts)Evolve Dammit
(19,606 posts)hlthe2b
(107,530 posts)in the movies. And, I almost want to watch them all again on an endless loop--with only a few actor changes.
electric_blue68
(19,568 posts)And THE SHAME you will not feel, Bastard!!!
GusBob
(7,664 posts)They are gonna defund the IHS
GusBob
(7,664 posts)The inmates in the county jail make up 75%
Are they not subjective to jurisdiction
deRien
(233 posts)that 65% of Native Americans voted for Trump?
druidity33
(6,611 posts)LymphocyteLover
(7,149 posts)mtngirl47
(1,118 posts)https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-native-american-vote-in-the-2024-presidential-election/
for the information
qazplm135
(7,611 posts)So then they must admit since that same law didn't exclude "illegal immigrants" that children of illegal immigrants must be citizens then if born here.
Botany
(72,922 posts)American vote?
VMA131Marine
(4,763 posts)For every action he takes, you just have to look at how he might have felt slighted in the past to understand it.
Evolve Dammit
(19,606 posts)underpants
(188,059 posts)Was a Congressional testimony?
1993 Trump speaks out about Tribal Casinos & Tomato Sellers
mountain grammy
(27,473 posts)Bengus81
(7,714 posts)They slighted his ass all those decades ago and for good reason. The dumbshit goes bk owning casinos.....
eppur_se_muova
(37,976 posts)He just knows "those people" can't really be better business managers than him.
Botany
(72,922 posts)American vote?
33taw
(3,007 posts)moniss
(6,389 posts)based on NBC exit polls. People say anything in an exit poll. Most polling I've seen for the last 20 years hasn't been right.
Ocelot II
(122,384 posts)people
(724 posts)Wow!
LeftInTX
(31,902 posts)covered by the 14th Amendment. They are covered by an Act of Congress that was enacted in 1924.
Trump's EO does not impact Native Americans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Citizenship_Act
They're going over the history of the 14th Amendment and they began with 1866 Civil Rights Acts
The 14th Amendment purposely excluded Native Americans because they were citizens of "Another Nation". Currently all Native Americans are US citizens. So, Trump's EO will not apply to them.
What the heritage guys are trying to prove is that birthright provided in the 14th Amendment does not apply to non-US citizens. They are rehashing a 1898 court case. Native Americans were not granted citizenship in that particular case, but infants of non-citizens born in the US were. It took an act of congress in 1924 to grant them citizenship. Hence, they are saying that citizenship is not allowed to infants born to non-citizens.
This is a pretty crafty legally maneuvering. However, it is not about making Native Americans non-citizens. It's about showing how the 14th Amendment should not a apply to the births of non-citizens because it didn't apply to Native Americans.
Evolve Dammit
(19,606 posts)Solly Mack
(93,514 posts)bdamomma
(67,218 posts)the oligarchs and Putin.
Solly Mack
(93,514 posts)That's all I can see right now. The harm he is bringing. The damage he is causing.
For me, everything is weighed against that.
bdamomma
(67,218 posts)His day is coming, evil cannot win. And we cannot let fellow Americans who have not a thing wrong to be rounded up. We are NOT Germany.
Solly Mack
(93,514 posts)I'll do what I can do.
Fla Dem
(26,142 posts)Not their fault, they were treated like scum and relegated to the trash heap of humanity.
Just one infantile, idiotic action after another.
surfered
(4,516 posts)BobsYourUncle
(161 posts)Even WTAFingF?
malthaussen
(17,841 posts)The irony is compelling, but nothing new. "The United States" is a completely different entity from the land mass on the North American continent encompassing same.
Why they don't just go all-out and proclaim "The only US Citizens are disgusting old white men like me" I dunno. You may be sure millions would cheer if they did.
-- Mal
Liberty Belle
(9,631 posts)malthaussen
(17,841 posts)"Citizens" was in quotes for a reason.
-- Mal
malthaussen
(17,841 posts)riversedge
(73,984 posts)I find it confusing.
PatrickforB
(15,144 posts)Squeaky41
(308 posts)All American Indians are citizens.
PERIOD!
LeftInTX
(31,902 posts)14th amendment, but by an Act of Congress.
After the 14th was passed, Native Americans and their children (there were some exceptions such Dawes enrollment etc) were not US citizens.
The person arguing in court used the exact wording from the 1866 Civil Rights Act that excluded Native Americans from US citizenship and subsequently from the 14th Amendment. The rationale was that Native Americans were subject to tribal laws and not US laws. However, that specifically disqualifying condition was no longer an issue after the passage of Indian Citizenship Act in 1924
Trump is not trying exclude Native Americans from citizenship. He is trying to exclude Non-Citizens and are using the Native Americans as an example who were not allowed to have birth rite citizenship until Congress passed a law specifically requiring citizenship for all Native Americans.
What they fail to address is that millions of white people born to European immigrants had birthright citizenship prior to the passage of the 14th amendment. People came. They had kids and I guess their kids were automatically citizens....
After passage, there was a large influx of European immigrants. (Germany provided plenty of immigrants after the Civil War) There was the Supreme Court case from 1898, but it also likely mingled with the Chinese Exclusion Act. Millions of people would be born "stateless" if we did not have birthright citizenship.
thinkingagain
(1,140 posts)Mostly
I think with my heart not my head
But I would argue
The constitution is a fluid living document
Should always move forward never backwards
Same with our Laws
Bengus81
(7,714 posts)I remember well when the MSM stayed wayyyyyyy away from any comparison.
YoshidaYui
(43,103 posts)but if they want to deport me to Honolulu, I will gladly go!
Norrrm
(114 posts)Are all natural born children American citizens? No... there is one exception. Children of diplomats.
Are all natural born children American citizens?
No
there is one exception.
Children of diplomats.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/birthright-citizenship-is-a-fundamental-constitutional-value/2018/07/20/49d7f9d2-8c46-11e8-8b20-60521f27434e_story.html?utm_term=.afecc93b0471&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1
The Supreme Court has long defined subject to the jurisdiction to carve out from the birthright citizenship guarantee only the children of diplomats who are immune from prosecution under U.S. laws. Meanwhile, if undocumented immigrants or their children commit a crime in the United States, they can be and are punished under U.S. law. In other words, they are - obviously! - subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. If born on American soil, they are also citizens of the United States.
---------------------
Amendment 14
(Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.)
Section 1. 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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
===================
Many folks bluff their belief that non-citizens do not have Constitutional rights and protections.
WRONG!
The any person part of Amendment 14 specifically provides certain Constitutional rights and protections to non-citizens.
BUT - there are some rights not granted to non-citizens.
.. Different discussion.
LaMouffette
(2,351 posts)nine reservations in South Dakota for lying about drug cartels infiltrating the tribes. A gesture like trying to deport Native Americans (to God knows where) would likely get Rump some major brownie points in Noem's book.
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/15/1251493304/most-of-south-dakotas-tribes-have-banned-kristi-noem-from-their-land-heres-why
cstanleytech
(27,292 posts)NameAlreadyTaken
(1,815 posts)efhmc
(15,078 posts)dalton99a
(85,611 posts)moniss
(6,389 posts)and try to diminish their rights and lands even further.
Bernardo de La Paz
(52,062 posts)Sparky 1
(423 posts)iemanja
(55,306 posts)Not East Indians.
Sparky 1
(423 posts)Many Native Americans call themselves Indians.
obamanut2012
(28,058 posts)Including well-known past posters on DU .
DallasNE
(7,640 posts)My guess is that the "Indians not taxed" lived on a reservation created by treaty and the treaty established which Indians were not taxed. Much of the current United States was listed as Indian territory back then. What we know for sure is that conditions were vastly different when that 1866 law was passed, including the fact that many of those treaties were later broken by the American government, and who knows for sure what they were replaced by. This is just more deflection to make you look the other way while the damage piles up in other areas.
iemanja
(55,306 posts)But Trump 2 is out of control. Was this in project 2025 too?
LeftInTX
(31,902 posts)Native Americans were not natural-borne citizens until a special law in 1924. So, the lawyer is saying that children of non-citizens can't be natural borne s because Native Americans were not natural-borne citizens until there was a law that gave them citizenship.
He's not trying to declare Native Americans as non-citizens nor is the EO undoing the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
It doesn't say anything about Native Americans in the EO. The EO only refers to non-citizens. Native Americans are US citizens.
This came up numerous times in the 19th century after the 14th Amendment was passed.
The Trump lawyer is a heritage foundation guy who goes back to old cases. Also the heritage foundation would LOVE to eliminate the 14th Amendment. It's been their wet dream like forever.
None of the other MSM sources are interpreting the hearing this way. Just Salon is interpreting it this way. Until Trump writes an EO to eliminate the Indian Citizenship Act, I'm not gonna worry about it. The Salon article fails to mention that Native Americans were granted full citizenship in 1924 and fails to mention the Indian Citizenship Act.
BumRushDaShow
(146,207 posts)and fails to mention the Indian Citizenship Act. "
I think the Salon article is just merely reporting the arguments that were made for the court by the loons. Since it was a generally brief article, they didn't go in depth into trying to fact check.
Most of the other articles focused on the Judge's (correct) excoriation of the nonsense that 45's people put forward but did little to actually describe what WAS being argued.
The actual filing that 45's people submitted in response to the suit is here (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.343943/gov.uscourts.wawd.343943.36.0.pdf
LeftInTX
(31,902 posts)It is helpful to know the arguments, however the headline made it seem like that Trump is going after Native Americans. There is already enough doom.
moondust
(20,638 posts)DFW
(57,067 posts)"Indians" taken literally, means people from the country whose current capital is New Delhi. People of the tribes who were in North America before Columbus arrived are not "Indian," but American. They were residents of North America way before any Europeans were here, and those of us of European ancestry have less claim to any kind of "birthright" than do those of purely American ancestry.
perdita9
(1,201 posts)That's what's ahead of us because the institutions which were supposed to protect our democracy--the courts, the press and the patriotism of the American people--all failed.
Paladin
(29,244 posts)Less than a week into this rotten administration, and they're already trying to knee-cap Native Americans? Motherfuck this shit.
LetMyPeopleVote
(157,107 posts)LetMyPeopleVote
(157,107 posts)Judge John Coughenour is correct in stating that this executive order is clearly unconstitutional. The legal justification for this executive order is based on the claim the term "subject to the jurisdiction of the United States" allows TFG to exclude children whose parents are not citizens. That argument is wrong. This term only excludes Indians and the children of diplomats
Link to tweet
Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1:
The requirement that a person be "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," however, excludes its application to
‼️children born of alien enemies in hostile occupation! ‼️
We have been illegally invaded with hostility.
Based on the first sentence of Section 1, the Court has held that a child born in the United States of Chinese parents who were ineligible to be naturalized themselves is nevertheless a citizen of the United States entitled to all the rights and privileges of citizenship.' The requirement that a person be "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," however, excludes its application to children born of diplomatic representatives of a foreign state, children born of alien enemies in hostile occupation,
The requirement that a person be "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," however, excludes its application to children born of alien enemies in hostile occupation!