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06/07/2015

No Birthright Citizenship for American Samoans
Michael Ramsey

On Friday the D.C. Circuit decided Tuaua v. United States, concluding that people born in American Samoa are not U.S. citizens by birth, even though American Samoa is a U.S. territory and the Fourteenth Amendment says that all persons born in the United States are citizens.  I'm not entirely sure how the court got its result, but it is an interesting and somewhat originalist opinion by Judge Janice Rogers Brown.  (I joined an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs).

At Just Security, Steve Vladeck thinks they should tried for en banc.