Birthright citizenship held that race was an accidental circumstance, not a disqualifier

Evidence

“Every person born in the country is, at the moment of birth, prima facie a citizen; and he who would deny it must take upon himself the burden of proving some great disfranchisement strong enough to override the ‘natural born’ right as recognized by the Constitution in terms the most simple and comprehensive, and without any reference to race or color, or any other accidental circumstance.” — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 724

Categorization

• XREF: Bates’s ‘prima facie’ birthright framing directly prefigures the Fourteenth Amendment’s citizenship clause and modern jus soli debates — connects to Trump-era birthright citizenship controversy over whether the Constitution’s text truly guarantees it.
• SEED: An essay angle: the legal provenance of birthright citizenship as ‘prima facie’ rather than absolute — how a presumption, once reversed, loses its force in policy arguments.
• DEFINE: Defines the legal doctrine of birthright citizenship in its original formulation as a rebuttable presumption rather than an absolute right.