In Supreme Court fight over birthright citizenship, a great-grandson hears echoes of 1898

try{ var _=i o; . if(!_||_&&typeof _==="object"&&_.expiry Expert says the upcoming week will be a pivotal moment in the Iran war. Here’s why Leading broker sees gold falling to $3,700 as a real possibility U.S. tech pullback mirrors late stages of dotcom era, strategists say S&P 500: Goldman Sachs says this is the key question in Q2 (South Africa Philippines Nigeria) In Supreme Court fight over birthright citizenship, a great-grandson hears echoes of 1898 By World Published 03/29/2026, 06:02 AM Updated 03/29/2026, 06:07 AM In Supreme Court fight over birthright citizenship, a great-grandson hears echoes of 1898 0 By Andrew Chung March 29 - President Donald Trump’s challenge to the longstanding rule that anyone born in the United States, with only narrow exceptions, is automatically a citizen echoes a similar dispute that took place on the shores of San Francisco more than a century ago. In the late 19th century, amid a wave of fervent anti-Chinese sentiment, the U.S. government sought to prevent a young man named Wong Kim Ark from re-entering the country upon returning by steamship from a trip to his parents’ homeland of China, contending that, despite being born in the United States, he was not a citizen. On March 28, 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed, recognizing that the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment grants citizenship by birth on U.S. soil, including to those like Wong whose parents were foreign nationals. A DESCENDANT WORRIES Now his great-grandson, a San Francisco area resident, worries that the principle enshrined by his ancestor’s case may be in peril. "Wong Kim Ark knew he was an American. And he demanded that his citizenship be recognized. He was willing to stand up," Norman Wong, 76, said in an interview. "Wong Kim Ark didn’t make the rule. He affirmed the rule." That 128-year-old understanding will be contested again at the Supreme Court on Wednesday when the justices hear arguments over the legality of Trump’s executive order that would deny a...