Ava DuVernay has announced a new documentary for Netflix focusing on the 14th Amendment, which granted freedom and rights to formerly enslaved people after the Civil War. This amendment, targeted legally by former President Donald Trump, will be the subject of DuVernay’s latest project. Netflix plans to release “14th” later this year. The film marks DuVernay’s return to non-fiction, following her previous works, including “Selma” and “Origin.” It also continues the conversation from her 2016 film “13th,” which examined the legacy of the 13th Amendment and the abolition of slavery.
The 14th Amendment has faced challenges from Trump, who on his second term’s first day attempted to drastically curtail birthright citizenship, as protected by the amendment. The Supreme Court overturned this order with a 6-3 vote in June.
Ratified in 1868 during the Reconstruction era, the 14th Amendment declares, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to its jurisdiction, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” It overturned the Supreme Court’s 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which determined that descendants of enslaved individuals could not be citizens.
DuVernay’s documentary will highlight the continuous impact of the 14th Amendment and incorporate insights from politicians, historians, and cultural voices. She emphasizes that the film isn’t about past freedom but questions what kind of nation is being shaped now.
Chief Justice John Roberts affirmed the amendment’s protections in the Court’s decision, preserving the citizenship of anyone born in the country with few exceptions. “Citizenship, then and now, meant the right to have rights: to participate freely in our political community. The framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every person born free in this land,’” wrote Roberts. “Today we uphold that promise.”
Despite the Supreme Court decision, Trump has expressed his intent to challenge the ruling further. Following the decision, he posted on Truth Social, declaring the ruling as destructively flawed for the United States unless reversed.