Filmmaker Ava DuVernay announced on Thursday, July 16, 2026, that she has directed a new documentary for Netflix focusing on the 14th Amendment, as reported by The Guardian.
The upcoming film, titled "14th," explores the constitutional amendment that granted citizenship and civil rights to formerly enslaved individuals after the American Civil War.
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It remains a central point of political contention in the United States.
Scheduled for release later this year, the project marks DuVernay's return to nonfiction filmmaking.
It serves as a direct follow-up to her acclaimed 2016 documentary, "13th," which explored the legacy of the amendment abolishing slavery.
Political Context and Supreme Court Ruling
The announcement arrives as the 14th Amendment's protection of birthright citizenship faces ongoing political challenges from Donald Trump.
On the first day of his second presidential term, Trump signed an executive order to restrict birthright citizenship.
The U. S.
Supreme Court subsequently struck down that directive in June by a 6-3 majority vote.
The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 during the Reconstruction era, states: "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 constitutional mandate effectively nullified the Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling, which had declared that descendants of enslaved people could not hold American citizenship.
