what follows immediately after the birthright clause? the privileges and immunities and due process clauses? and what follows them? the equal protection clause. all of this is explicitly to say, "the declaration is the constitutional law of the land"

the birthright clause was not just written to wipe dred scott off of the books, it was written to repudiate the *idea* behind dred scott, you might say the larger *ideological project* of dred scott. and the whole of section 1 of the 14th amendment is a constitutional statement of political equality

dred scott, in their minds, established the united states as a place of tiered citizenship and permanent inequality among americans. it was a ruling that said, in effect, that all men *were not* created equal and would *never* be treated as such.