What was the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark?

The Supreme Court ruled 6–2 in favor of Wong Kim Ark, declaring his detention unconstitutional and affirming his U.S. citizenship by birthright. The majority opinion, delivered by Justice Horace Gray, stated that to deny Wong citizenship despite his birth in the U.S. would put other immigrants in danger: “To hold that the Fourteenth Amendment…excludes from citizenship the children, born in the United States, of citizens or subjects of other countries, would be to deny citizenship to thousands of persons of English, Scotch, Irish, German, or other European parentage, who have always been considered and treated as citizens of the United States.”