On Thursday, Ava DuVernay revealed she has produced a documentary for Netflix focusing on the 14th Amendment, which granted citizenship and rights to formerly enslaved individuals after the Civil War and has recently faced legal challenges from former President Donald Trump.
Netflix confirmed the film, titled “14th,” will debut later this year. The project marks DuVernay’s return to nonfiction filmmaking following her acclaimed works Selma and Origin, and serves as a sequel to her 2016 documentary “13th,” which examined the legacy of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery.
The 14th Amendment has been a focal point of Trump’s agenda. On the first day of his second term, he issued an executive order seeking to severely limit birthright citizenship as guaranteed by the amendment. In June, the Supreme Court overturned that order by a 6‑3 vote.
Ratified in 1868 during Reconstruction, the amendment declares: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” This provision overturned the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling, which had denied citizenship to descendants of enslaved people.
DuVernay said her film will explore how the 14th Amendment has become “a permanent argument,” featuring insights from politicians, historians, and cultural commentators.
“If ‘13th’ asked who gets caged, then ‘14th’ asks who gets counted,” DuVernay stated. “This is not a film about the past tense of freedom. I’m not interested in asking you to look back. The film asks what kind of country is being written beneath our feet now … while we’re busy believing the stories we’ve all been told.”
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, affirmed the amendment’s protections, noting that it confers citizenship on anyone born in the United States, with only narrow exceptions.
He added, “Citizenship, then and now, is the right to have rights—to participate fully in our political life. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free‑born person in this land,’ a promise we uphold today.”
Trump has vowed to continue challenging the Supreme Court’s decision. After the ruling, he posted on Truth Social: “This miscarriage of justice will destroy America if they don’t change their absolutely insane decision.”
