Looking to limit birthright citizenship, Trump turns to an 1884 Supreme Court ruling against a Native American man

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2. In Supreme Court fight over birthright citizenship, a great-grandson hears echoes of 1898

In Supreme Court fight over birthright citizenship, a great-grandson hears echoes of 1898

By Andrew Chung
March 29, 2026 6:02 AM EDT Updated 14 hours ago

Summary
• A Trump directive would limit birthright citizenship
• Supreme Court will mull directive's legality on Wednesday
• Its 1898 ruling confirmed citizenship by birth on US soil
• US Constitution's citizenship language in the spotlight

March 29 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's challenge to the longstanding rule that anyone born in the United States, with only narrow exceptions, is automatically a citizen echoes a similar dispute that took place on the shores of San Francisco more than a century ago.

In the late 19th century, amid a wave of fervent anti-Chinese sentiment, the U.S. government sought to prevent a young man named Wong Kim Ark from re-entering the country upon returning by steamship from a trip to his parents' homeland of China, ​contending that, despite being born in the United States, he was not a citizen.

On March 28, 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed, recognizing that the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment grants citizenship by birth on U.S. soil, including to those like Wong whose parents were foreign nationals.

A DESCENDANT WORRIES

Now ‌his great-grandson, a San Francisco area resident, worries that the principle enshrined by his ancestor's case may be in peril. ... "Wong Kim Ark knew he was an American. And he demanded that his citizenship be recognized. He was willing to stand up," Norman Wong, 76, said in an interview. "Wong Kim Ark didn't make the rule. He affirmed the rule."

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Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham