FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Civil Rights Veteran Ted Hayes Files Supreme Court Brief Defining “Federal Citizenship” as the Legacy of Reconstruction
WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 16, 2026 – Today, Ted Hayes, a 74-year-old veteran of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and prominent advocate for the homeless, officially filed a pro se Amicus Curiae brief with the Supreme Court of the United States.
The brief addresses the foundational meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, arguing that the “subject to the jurisdiction” provision is a mandatory executive command rooted in the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
As the Court prepares to deliberate on the future of birthright citizenship, Hayes’s filing introduces a unique historical and generational perspective.
In an unprecedented, historical, clarion way, Ted Hayes aptly and cleary argues that the Fourteenth Amendment was designed as a “legal lock” for the Civil Rights Act of 1866, intended as remedial law that secures Federal Citizenship exclusively for chattel slaves and their descendants in the USA perpetuity, i.e., as long as this Union Republic “…under GOD shall not perish from the earth.”
“This is not an abstract legal theory; it is a question of constitutional memory,” said Hayes.
“The Reconstruction Amendments were corrective-rehabilitative-remedial laws written to transform a people from generations-destroying, chattel slavery into citizens with EXPERIENTIAL, not just a title “on paper, “equal justice/protection under the law” citizenship, “as is enjoyed by white citizens” (1866 Civil Rights Act (The Act)
Ted Hayes continues, saying “That transformation was meant to be permanent and protected from political whim, such as political custom, as the usurped version of ‘Birthright Citizenship”
Note: Chattel Slavery – According to the 2008 Congressional Resolution HR #194, Sentence 2, such was the worst form of human bondage in world history. See sentence 2
“Whereas slavery in America resembled no other form of involuntary servitude known in history, as Africans were captured and sold at auction like inanimate objects or animals.”
A central theme of the brief is the “Subjective Beneficiary” status of the current bench.
Hayes highlights that for the first time in American history, the Court includes Justices—specifically Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson—who are the direct descendants of the very people the 1866 Act was written to protect.
Hayes posits that their presence on the bench is a “constitutional manifestation” of the struggle for justice, placing upon them a unique moral and generational responsibility to safeguard the federal citizenship bequeathed to them.
The filing calls on the Supreme Court to fulfill the mandate of Section 10 of the 1866 Act by removing all modern controversy and restating the original intent of the 39th Congress.
About Ted Hayes: Ted Hayes is the son of a Buffalo Soldier and a lifelong advocate for justice. For over 40 years, he has led the Justiceville initiative in Los Angeles, working at the intersection of homelessness, civil rights, and constitutional law.
Media Contact: Justiceville Initiative Justiceville@TedHayes.us and TedHayes.us or https://TedHayes.us