<P> The Citizenship Clause overruled the Supreme Court 's Dred Scott decision that black people were not citizens and could not become citizens , nor enjoy the benefits of citizenship . Some members of Congress voted for the Fourteenth Amendment in order to eliminate doubts about the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 , or to ensure that no subsequent Congress could later repeal or alter the main provisions of that Act . The Civil Rights Act of 1866 had granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States if they were not subject to a foreign power , and this clause of the Fourteenth Amendment constitutionalized this rule . </P>
ratified by the states in 1868 the fourteenth amendment granted full citizenship rights to
all persons born in the United States if they were not subject to a foreign power