The first words of the Fourteenth Amendment, argues legal scholar and Atlantic contributor Garrett Epps, are the key to its meaning: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

In the newest Atlantic Argument, Epps details the history of the citizenship clause and explains why Donald Trump’s proposed executive order to end birthright citizenship cannot alter its meaning—unless the president intends to challenge “the very fabric of the American republic.”

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Garrett Epps

Trump Is Trying to Change ‘What it Means to Be American’