Birthright Citizenship, Slave Trade Legislation, and the Origins of Federal Immigration Regulation
Thursday, April 17 | 6-7 p.m.
Law Center, McQuade Law Auditorium
Paul Finkelman & Jack Chin
University of Toledo Visiting Professor of Law Paul Finkelman and Professor Gabriel Jack Chin of University of California at Davis Law School will discuss the origins, historical background, and original meaning of the Birth Right Citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment. Passed by Congress a year after the Civil War ended, and ratified in early July 1868, this amendment begins with a powerful statement: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, are citizens of the United States and of state in which they reside.” Chin and Finkelman are the coauthors of a 2021 law review article, Birthright Citizenship, Slave Trade Legislation, and the Origins of Federal Immigration Regulation, which has been mentioned in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, cited in several briefs, and quoted in op eds, involving the current controversy over birthright citizenship. They will explain the meaning of the amendment and sort out the often-misunderstood phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” The bottom line is that born in the United States is a citizen at birth, under the clause and various federal statutes.
Paul Finkelman is a Visiting Professor at Toledo Law School. He has held endowed chairs
as a tenured or visiting professor at, among other law schools: Duke, LSU, Marquette,
the University of Saskatchewan, and Albany (where he is an emeritus professor). He
held the Fulbright Chair in Human Rights and Social Justice at the University of Ottawa
Law School. He is the author of more than 100 law review articles and the author or
editor of more than 50 books. The Supreme Court has cited his work in six decisions
as have many other courts. He has appeared on programs on PBS, C-SPAN, and the history
channel, and most recently in the movie One Person, One Vote. His most recent major
book was Supreme Injustice: Slavery in the Nation’s Highest Court, published by Harvard
University Press.
Jack Chin is Edward L. Barrett Jr. Chair and Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at UC Davis School of Law. Regularly appearing on lists of the most cited legal scholars, he writes about criminal law, race and law, and legal history. His Cornell Law Reviewarticle Effective Assistance of Counsel and the Consequences of Guilty Pleas, co-authored with a student, was cited in Padilla v. Kentucky, 130 S. Ct. 1473 (2010), and Chaidez v. United States, 133 S. Ct. 1103 (2013). Justice Sotomayor cited his University of Pennsylvania Law Review article The New Civil Death in her dissent in Utah v. Streiff, 136 S. Ct. 2056 (2016).
About the lecture
This free, public lecture is presented by The University of Toledo College of Law.
Parking
McQuade Law Auditorium is on the main level of the Law Center — located at 1825 West Rocket Drive, immediately inside the UToledo West Entrance off of Secor Road and south of Bancroft Street.
You will need a guest permit which can be obtained at guestparking.utoledo.edu for $5.75/day. Alternatively, you can use the ParkMobile app in most areas on campus which allows you to pay for short term parking.