Jan. 26, 2011 — The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says that all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens. What does that phrase, “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” mean? Does it apply to foreign diplomats? What about undocumented children of illegal immigrants?

Peter Schuck of Yale Law School and Margaret Stock of the University of Alaska will consider those questions in the 27th annual Fordham Debate, “Birthright Citizenship: Origins, Constitutional Status, and the Current Debate” on Monday January 31 at 12:15 p.m. in the Sutherland Moot Courtroom at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. The debate is free and open to the public and no pre-registration is required. It will also be webcast live on the college’s Website at http://dashboard.law.utah.edu

Teneille Brown, an associate professor of law at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law and organizer of the event, says, “We are fortunate to have two of the most prominent thinkers and practitioners in the area of immigration reform with us for the debate, to share their views on this timely topic.”

Peter H. Schuck is the Simeon E. Baldwin professor of law at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. He has held this chair since 1984, and also served as deputy dean of the law school. Prior to joining the Yale faculty in 1979, he was principal deputy assistant secretary for planning and evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (1977-79), director of the Washington Office of Consumers Union (1972-77), and consultant to the Center for Study of Responsive Law (1971-72). He also practiced law in New York City (1965-68) and holds degrees from Cornell (B.A. 1962), Harvard Law School (J.D. 1965), N.Y.U. Law School (Ll.M. in international law 1966), and Harvard University (M.A. in government, 1969). His major fields of teaching and research are tort law; immigration, citizenship and refugee law; groups, diversity and law; and administrative law. He has written on a broad range of other public policy topics in a wide variety of scholarly and popular journals.

Margaret Stock, an Alaska attorney and retired military officer, is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alaska Anchorage, where she teaches Introduction to American Government. She is interested in issues of immigration, citizenship, national security, military affairs and constitutional law. Stock has frequently testified before Congress on issues relating to immigration and national security, has authored numerous articles on immigration and citizenship topics, and frequently speaks at public events on topics such as birthright citizenship, immigration and the U.S. military, and immigration and national security. Stock holds a B.A. from Harvard-Radcliffe, an M.P.A. from the Harvard Kennedy School, a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Master of Strategic Studies from the Army War College. In the fall of 2009, she was a visiting fellow at the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University.

The Fordham Debate is named in honor of Professor Jefferson B. Fordham, an outstanding legal scholar and defender of individual and civil rights who joined the University of Utah College of Law faculty in 1972. The annual debate addresses relevant contemporary public policy and legal issues. The debate will be offered for one hour of free CLE credit (applied for).