When the U.S. constitutional right to birthright citizenship survived by a razor-thin majority, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson delivered an urgent warning about the “distortion of historical facts” for “misbegotten aims.”
That’s why All Rise News marked the 250th anniversary this morning with a reading of her concurring opinion, which spoke to the “call of remembrance.” The live-stream aired shortly after 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time on July 4, 2026.
The recitation begins at around 3:23 minutes of the archived video.
Some notes on the recording:
I omitted footnotes and citations for time and clarity, but they are worth reading, particularly if you want to add to your summer reading list with historian Eric Foner’s books on Reconstruction and journalist Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent.”
By demarcating Parts I and II of the opinion, I hoped to call attention to where Jackson is joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor and where she speaks alone.
You can read some of my extended thoughts on Jackson’s opinion at the semiquincentennial here, and you can read the Trump v. Barbara opinions here.
