Constitution Day Speaker - "The Origins of US Migration and Citizenship"

Constitution Day Speaker, Anna O. Law presents "The Origins of US Migration and Citizenship"

The U.S. Supreme Court narrowly upheld birthright citizenship in June and the competing versions of US history that appeared in the Trump v Barbara opinion sparked questions about the origins of that bedrock constitutional guarantee. What was citizenship like before the 14th Amendment and why is the bedrock guarantee of birthright citizenship in the Constitution?

Anna O. Law is the Herbert Kurz Chair in Constitutional Rights and Professor of Political Science at the City University of New York, Brooklyn College. Her research appears in political science, history, law, and policy venues. Her newest book, Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship, was cited in one of the “friends of the court” legal briefs in Trump v Barbara, the June 2026 Supreme Court decision on birthright citizenship.