4 Experts Available for Timely Analysis on SCOTUS Birthright Citizenship Case
The Supreme Court has upheld birthright citizenship, reaffirming the principle that the Constitution guarantees that nearly all children born on U.S. soil are citizens.
If you’re looking for experts who can help put this decision in context, the following researchers are available to comment:
Chen teaches courses in constitutional law, citizenship, immigration, and race. She brings a socio-legal perspective to the study of race, immigration, and the administrative state. She is the author of Pursuing Citizenship in the Enforcement Era (Stanford University Press, 2020) and speaks widely on birthright citizenship.
Joseph is a scholar of citizenship, immigration, race, and belonging whose research examines how laws and policies shape who is able to fully participate in American society. Her work explores the limits of legal citizenship—whether acquired through birthright citizenship or naturalization—and how race, ethnicity, and immigration status affect inclusion, rights, and access to opportunity in the United States. She is the author of Not All In: Race, Immigration, and Healthcare Exclusion in the Age of Obamacare (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025), which examines how documentation status, race, and ethnicity influence access to health care after major policy reforms. She also wrote Race on the Move: Brazilian Migrants and the Global Reconstruction of Race (Stanford University Press, 2015).
Law is the author of Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship (Oxford University Press, 2026). She recently appeared on the Amicus Podcast to talk about birthright citizenship and citizenship and migration more broadly with Dahlia Lithwick.
Patler is the lead author of an amicus brief co-signed by 140 scholars and submitted to SCOTUS in its consideration of birthright citizenship. Among other things, the brief presents estimates of the impacted population of children, projected financial contributions through 2074 under the status quo birthright citizenship, and a summary of research on the benefits of citizenship and the harms of revoking birthright citizenship. In general, Patler's research explores how citizenship and legal status shape opportunities for mobility.