TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Azya Thornton on Oct 24, 2025

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, joined by attorneys general from 24 other states, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on today urging the court to clarify that the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause does not guarantee automatic citizenship to everyone born in the United States. The states argue that lower courts have misinterpreted the clause to require automatic citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ residency or immigration status. “The idea that citizenship is guaranteed to everyone born in the United States doesn’t square with the plain language of the 14th Amendment or the way many government officials and legal analysts understood the law when it was adopted after the Civil War,” Skrmetti said in a press release.