birthright citizenship

[burth-rahyt sit-uh-zuhn-ship]

noun

1. the practice of automatically granting citizenship to a child born in a particular country, regardless of the citizenship status of the parent or parents.

   an end to birthright citizenship.

2. the state of having such citizenship.

   to grant birthright citizenship to the child of new immigrants.

Word History and Origins

Origin of birthright citizenship¹

First recorded in 1845–50

Example Sentences

This is one reason they are embracing increasingly extreme anti-majoritarian policies such as voter nullification, voter suppression, radical gerrymandering and even rewriting the Constitution to end birthright citizenship.

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Political debate — around things such as sending military troops into American cities, cutting off food aid for the poor or questioning constitutional guarantees such as birthright citizenship — has become so untethered to longstanding norms that everything feels novel.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

His constant flirting with the idea of a third term in office does that, as does his legal challenge to birthright citizenship and his military’s penchant for blasting alleged drug vessels out of international waters.

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If you accept the Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship, then dissent from these principles isn’t a good reason to deny that those born in the U.S. are American citizens.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

By the time I reached formal adulthood and arrived in September 1976 as a student at Yale College—on my 18th birthday, as it happened—I had decided to devote my life to studying and serving the generous nation that had given me birthright citizenship and the epic national document that had codified that gift.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal