Read the excerpt from the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. All persons born or naturalized in the United States . . . are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. The citizenship clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is important because it
Answer
A
restricted freed enslaved people from becoming citizens.
B
limited the number of people who can become citizens.
C
gave everyone free passports if they became citizens.
D
was the first time the Constitution defined what a citizen is.
Explanation
Before the Fourteenth Amendment, the Constitution did not clearly define who was a U.S. citizen. The citizenship clause established that people born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States and of the state where they live. So the correct choice is “was the first time the Constitution defined what a citizen is.”
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