Ava DuVernay announces Netflix documentary '14th' on birthright citizenship

Netflix will release Ava DuVernay's documentary '14th' later this year, focusing on the 14th Amendment, which has been under legal attack by President Donald Trump. The amendment, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born in the U.S., overturning the Dred Scott decision. Trump signed an executive order on his first day of his second term to restrict birthright citizenship, but the Supreme Court struck it down 6-3 in June Source: AP News.

DuVernay's film will examine how the amendment became "a permanent argument" and will feature politicians, historians, and cultural voices. She stated, "If '13th' asked who gets caged, then '14th' asks who gets counted" Source: AP News. The documentary follows her 2016 film '13th' on the 13th Amendment.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, "Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights" Source: AP News. Trump vowed to continue challenging the ruling, calling it a "miscarriage of justice" that would "destroy America" Source: AP News. DuVernay emphasized, "This is not a film about the past tense of freedom. The film asks what kind of country is being written beneath our feet now" Source: The Guardian.