The 5–4 ruling doesn’t give me much comfort. It reads like one battle in a longer-term effort to reach the same goal through a different strategy.
That’s why Balogun’s story resonated with me. At the same moment FIFA was deciding whether he could play, America was debating the constitutional principle that made him eligible to represent the United States.
Balogun was born in Brooklyn while his mother was temporarily visiting the United States before the family returned to England. Under the Constitution as it has long been understood, that made him an American citizen at birth, and years later, eligible to represent the United States.
Sometimes constitutional debates show up in places you don’t expect, including the World Cup.
The 5–4 ruling doesn’t give me much comfort. It reads like one battle in a longer-term effort to reach the same goal through a different strategy.
That’s why Balogun’s story resonated with me. At the same moment FIFA was deciding whether he could play, America was debating the constitutional principle that made him eligible to represent the United States.
Balogun was born in Brooklyn while his mother was temporarily visiting the United States before the family returned to England. Under the Constitution as it has long been understood, that made him an American citizen at birth, and years later, eligible to represent the United States.
Sometimes constitutional debates show up in places you don’t expect, including the World Cup.