“You can’t just strip citizenship, even if the law changes or there is a clarification of the meaning of the 14th Amendment, those already recognized a citizens would be grandfathered in. You can’t make a change in the law retroactive (ex post facto law). (Article 1, Section 9 ss 3)”
It wouldn’t be “ex post facto” if a court were to rule that the law had been interpreted incorrectly at the time the children were determined to have been citizens. We would most likely still “grandfather” them in, but that would be for convenience’s sake, not by necessity.
This is quite an informative piece- worth a read.
The 14th Amendment contains the words “subject to the jurisdiction therein” specifically to exclude those who not subject to US laws, i.e., illegal aliens. If you are an illegal alien or a diplomat, you are not subject to the rights bestowed citizens under the Constitution. There is nothing confusing about it.
If the founders meant that everyone born in the US is automatically a citizen, they would not have added those very specific words to the amendment.
Correct. That would violate due process. Prof. Eastman, Dean of Chapman University argues thus: