Note 20 — Chapter V · THE CITIZEN, HIS RIGHTS AND DUTIES

Some children although born in the United States are not subject to American jurisdiction. The children of a foreign ambassador, serving in the United States, are for this reason not citizens, even though born here. Children born on board a foreign warship in an American harbor are not deemed to be “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. But with a few unimportant exceptions of this sort all persons born in the United States are born within its jurisdiction, and hence are citizens by birth.

One may be an American citizen by birth, moreover, without having been born in the United States. The children of American parents, even though born outside the territory of the United States, have the right to claim this citizenship. Children of American parents, born on the high seas, or on American war vessels in foreign ports, or children of American ambassadors born abroad, are citizens of the United States by virtue of their parentage. Children of American parents, born on foreign soil, have the right to choose between American citizenship and citizenship of the country in which they were born.