03/30/2026
President Trump’s administration is citing a case that could take on new significance almost 150 years later to end automatic birthright citizenship.
On April 5, 1880, Omaha election official Charles Wilkins refused to register John Elk to vote on the grounds that he was Native American, and therefore not an American citizen. Elk launched a legal challenge, arguing among other things that he was a citizen at birth because he was born within U.S. territory.
In the 1884 case called Elk v. Wilkins, the Supreme Court ruled against him, saying that Native Americans born within the territory of the United States did not have birthright citizenship. They had the same status as “the children of subjects of any foreign government born within the domain of that government.”
Solicitor General D. John Sauer, representing the government, referenced Elk in court papers, saying the Supreme Court has “squarely rejected the premise that anyone born in U.S. territory, no matter the circumstances, is automatically a citizen so long as the federal government can regulate them.”
Trump’s executive order, issued on the first day of his second term, seeks to limit birthright citizenship only to people with at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent resident.
The Trump administration’s arguments about the relevance of the Elk ruling are strongly contested by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is leading the challenge to Trump’s executive order.
Read more: nbcnews.app.link/89cEkgCUV1b
