Everyone born in a U.S. state or territory automatically gets U.S. citizenship —unless one happens to be born in American Samoa. That exception is at the heart of a federal lawsuit. Peter Spiro, a law professor at Temple, said the suit might run into problems. "There's a long, historical tradition of U.S. territories lying outside the reach of the 14th Amendment," he said. "It wouldn't be hard for Congress to fix this, and in my opinion, it probably should."