[Jude in WV]

It sounds to me, as if by this definition, you are saying that any foreigner, student, tourist, etc. can give birth to a baby on American soil and that child is a natural born citizen. Is that right?

I don’t agree. I think “subject to US jurisdiction” is the key point to citizenship.

[Sibre Fan]

It sounds to me, as if by this definition, you are saying that any foreigner, student, tourist, etc. can give birth to a baby on American soil and that child is a natural born citizen. Is that right? I don’t agree. I think “subject to US jurisdiction” is the key point to citizenship.

Under the law as it stands today, that is right. Under the law, as it stands today (Supreme Court precedent), "subject to US jurisdiction," means subject to the laws of the US, and all foreign visitors, immigrants (legal or illegal) are subject to the laws of the US.

For the last decade or so, multiple organizations such as the Heritage Foundation, Eagle Forum and others have filed amicus briefs in the Supreme Court when this issue has been raised, even tangentially, by a case. They argue that the law should be changed, such that a child born to a foreign visitor or immigrant (legal or illegal) should not be so considered. To date, the Supreme Court has declined to take up the issue. The most "famous" (or - infamous) recent case was Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, decided in, IIRC, 2004. There, the issue was whether a combatant captured in Afghanistan was entitled to constitutional protections because he was born in the U.S. while his Saudi parents were here on a work visa. They made multiple arguments, including the "subject to jurisdiction" argument. The Supreme Court accepted the briefs -- but still held that he was a citizen entitled to constitutional protections. (In his dissent, Scalia indicated some "doubt" possibly, by referring to Hamdi as a "presumed" US citizen.)

The amici in those cases raised some very good arguments. However, even those organizations recognized that the law, as it stands today grants such citizenship. They have been working hard - and will continue, I suspect to work hard to change the law.