great article. quick read.
S C O T U S B L O G
Birthright citizenship: the exceptions provide the rule
By Samarth Desai
onMar 6, 2026
In short, the exceptions confirm the “under the flag” rule. Birth on American soil is not enough; the flag must also fly above the cradle.
''So, too, an American-born child of an illegal alien, as a person in her own right and indeed an American-born citizen,is fully subject to ordinary American law – for example, birth-certificate and infant-blood-test laws.[READ THAT AGAIN]
The 14th Amendment’s framers and ratifiers themselves understood this distinction between exceptional jurisdiction (applicable to all on the soil) and ordinary jurisdiction (applicable only to those under the flag). As Republican Senator (and future Attorney General) George Henry Williams put it two weeks before Congress sent the 14th Amendment to the states for ratification, “the child of an embassador . . . to a certain extent . . . is subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, but not in every respect; and so with these Indians.” For Williams, that distinction explained why ambassadorial and tribal babies would not be birthright citizens, while babies born squarely under the flag would be.''
Rome to Reconstruction ( RR?)
The exception confirmed the Rule
In 56 B.C., Cicero defended Lucius Cornelius Balbus, a naturalized Roman, against the charge of unlawful citizenship. As Cicero pointed out, Rome had entered into treaties with various peoples that expressly barred their members from naturalizing. But the treaty with Balbus’s community had no such restriction. So, Cicero argued, the exceptions confirmed the general rule that Balbus and other foreigners could become Roman citizens.