The 14th Amendment does read: “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.” However, this amendment was focused on protecting the rights of former slaves and their children. There are no cases applying it in the context of illegal immigrants. This presents a dilemma for the strict constructionists/originalists on the SC who might be inclined to rule against citizenship for such children but who tend to insist on adherence to the letter of the law.