In his 1857 ruling in the Dred Scott case, Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that anyone of African descent, whether free or slave, could never be a citizen of the United States. It took the Civil War to create a sufficient majority in Congress and state legislatures to pass an amendment to overturn this decision. The Fourteenth Amendment established the legal right now known as birthright citizenship.

A century and a half later, Trump is … Read full post