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Ava DuVernay to make Netflix documentary 14th on birthright citizenship
Ava DuVernay has announced she is making a new Netflix documentary, 14th, focusing on the US constitution's 14th amendment, which grants citizenship and equal protection rights and has recently come under legal challenge from Donald Trump. The film marks DuVernay's return to nonfiction and a companion piece to her 2016 documentary 13th, which examined the legacy of the amendment abolishing slavery; it arrives as Trump continues to contest a US supreme court ruling that struck down his attempt to restrict birthright citizenship.
Netflix confirmed the film will be released later this year, featuring politicians, historians and cultural commentators discussing how the amendment, ratified in 1868, became what DuVernay calls "a permanent argument". Trump had signed an executive order on his first day back in office seeking to heavily restrict birthright citizenship, but in June the supreme court rejected it by a 6-3 vote, with chief justice John Roberts affirming the amendment's protections; Trump has since denounced the ruling as a "miscarriage of justice" and vowed to keep fighting it.
In short
- DuVernay to release Netflix documentary 14th later this year
- Film examines the amendment protecting birthright citizenship
- Follows supreme court's 6-3 rejection of Trump's restriction order
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The 14th Amendment's text is unambiguous: all persons born in the United States are citizens. This principle has been settled law for over 150 years and was essential to ending slavery's legacy by ensuring formerly enslaved people and their descendants possessed full constitutional protections. The amendment reflects a commitment to equal citizenship regardless of parental status or circumstances of birth, a foundational democratic principle. Restricting birthright citizenship would create uncertainty about citizenship status and potentially leave people born in America as stateless or subordinate, undermining the amendment's core purpose of guaranteeing equal protection.
The case against
The 14th Amendment was specifically designed to address slavery and grant citizenship to formerly enslaved persons and their descendants, not to create automatic citizenship for anyone born on US soil regardless of parental immigration status. A narrower interpretation of the amendment respects its original intent and allows democratic nations to exercise sovereignty over citizenship criteria, as most democracies do. Concerns about incentivising illegal immigration and birth tourism are legitimate policy considerations that warrant reconsidering whether birthright citizenship should extend automatically to children of non-citizen parents. The amendment's language can be read as requiring that persons born in the US and subject to the jurisdiction thereof have a meaningful connection to the nation, which some argue non-citizen children lack.
Explained simply
The 14th Amendment is part of the US Constitution, added in 1868 after the Civil War. It guarantees that anyone born in the United States automatically becomes a citizen—a principle known as birthright citizenship. For more than 150 years this has been a cornerstone of American law, but it has recently become the subject of intense political dispute.
Donald Trump has moved to restrict birthright citizenship, arguing that the 14th Amendment should not automatically grant citizenship to children born to non-citizens. The US Supreme Court blocked his attempt, with a 6-3 ruling in June 2026 upholding the amendment's protections. Trump has rejected this decision and pledged to continue fighting for restrictions on birthright citizenship.
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay previously made a documentary exploring the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, and how its effects persist in modern America. She is now directing a documentary that will examine the 14th Amendment and its continuing relevance to debates about citizenship and rights. The film arrives as the amendment, long considered settled law, faces unprecedented legal and political challenges.
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