Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_l6gn.pdf
Page Number: 59.0

Cite as:  600 U. S. ____ (2023) 

11 

THOMAS, J., concurring 

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, 
and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  are  citizens  of
the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
No  State  shall  make  or  enforce  any  law  which  shall 
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the 
United States; nor shall any State deprive any person 
of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; 
nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal 
protection of the laws.” §1. 

status, 

invoking 

citizenship 

As enacted, the text of the Fourteenth Amendment pro-
vides a firm statement of equality before the law.  It begins 
by  guaranteeing 
the 
“longstanding political and legal tradition that closely asso-
ciated the status of citizenship with the entitlement to legal
equality.”  Vaello  Madero,  596  U. S.,  at  ___  (THOMAS,  J., 
concurring) (slip op., at 6) (internal quotation marks omit-
ted).  It  then  confirms  that  States  may  not  “abridge  the 
rights  of  national  citizenship,  including  whatever  civil 
equality  is  guaranteed  to  ‘citizens’  under  the  Citizenship 
Clause.”  Id., at ___, n. 3 (slip op., at 13, n. 3).  Finally, it
pledges that even noncitizens must be treated equally “as 
individuals,  and  not  as  members  of  racial,  ethnic,  or  reli-
gious groups.”  Missouri v. Jenkins, 515 U. S. 70, 120–121 
(1995) (THOMAS, J., concurring).

The drafters and ratifiers of the Fourteenth Amendment 
focused on this broad equality idea, offering surprisingly lit-
tle explanation of which term was intended to accomplish 
which part of the Amendment’s overall goal.  “The available 
materials . . . show,” however, “that there were widespread 
expressions of a general understanding of the broad scope
of  the  Amendment  similar  to  that  abundantly  demon-
strated in the Congressional debates, namely, that the first 
section of the Amendment would establish the full constitu-
tional  right  of  all  persons  to  equality  before  the  law  and 
would  prohibit  legal  distinctions  based  on  race  or  color.”