Birthright Citizenship: Wong Kim Ark

Citizenship in the United States is granted not solely by ancestral lineage, but by jus soli, or birthright citizenship, as well. In other words, if you are born in the United States, you have a legal right to citizenship regardless of your parents, and their citizenship status. That right was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of The United States v. Wong Kim Ark in 1898.