Supreme Court strikes down birthright citizenship order

On June 30, the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that children born in the U.S. to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily are not U.S. citizens.

The 6-3 ruling upheld a long-settled understanding that the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the country. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

In his dissent, Thomas wrote that the 14th Amendment “was designed and understood to secure equal rights for the freed blacks but has instead been repurposed for political projects that the Reconstruction Congress did not support.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the high court, warned of “an even greater threat” posed by Thomas’ dissent and what she described as the Trump administration’s bad-faith interpretation of the Constitution.

“What is more, this alternative account pitches Black Americans against immigrants when the advocates who promoted the Fourteenth Amendment did no such thing,” Jackson wrote. “Freed Blacks fought for the shared humanity of all people.”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested in his opinion that Congress, not the courts, could decide whether to change birthright citizenship through legislation.

Reaction to the ruling came quickly from civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups, many of whom connected the fight over birthright citizenship to broader efforts to restrict voting rights.

New Justice Project Executive Director Rod Adams said the ruling reflected a promise won through Black resistance.

“The 14th Amendment was never about legal language. It was a declaration that America could no longer decide who was fully human or fully American based on race or circumstances of birth,” Adams said. “That promise was purchased with Black blood, Black courage and Black resistance.”

Adams argued that Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship is connected to the SAVE Act, a restrictive voting bill that would require Americans to produce a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. Last week, Trump refused to sign a bipartisan housing affordability bill until Congress passes the SAVE Act.

“The same forces attacking birthright citizenship are attacking voting rights,” Adams said. “The same forces targeting immigrant families are attacking Black communities. The same forces trying to erase our history are trying to silence our voices at the ballot box.”

Hamsa Hussein, a Somali American rideshare driver and leader of the SEIU Local 26 Drivers Organization Committee, joined Adams after the ruling and said attacks on birthright citizenship are also attacks on workers’ rights.

“Instead of attacking migrants who are our neighbors, we should stand up to the billionaires, the big corporations,” Hussein said.

Unidos MN Executive Director Emilia González-Avalos said efforts to end birthright citizenship amount to voter suppression.

“When they move to erase birthright citizenship, they move to erase your vote before you ever cast it, to make sure you could never hold them accountable for a mass deportation agenda tearing families from their homes right now,” González-Avalos said. “Make no mistake, this was voter suppression dressed up as immigration policy, but they miscalculated, because you are here, you are citizens, and your power is real.”

Thomas Wolf, director of democracy initiatives at the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, said the ruling doesn’t offset the damage he believes the court has done this term.

“The Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed citizenship to everyone born here over 150 years ago. The Supreme Court affirmed that 20 years later in Wong Kim Ark,” Wolf said. “Meanwhile, the court has been on an anti-democratic rampage. In just the past few weeks alone, the court further undermined the Voting Rights Act, encouraged more aggressive partisan gerrymandering, dangerously expanded presidential power over federal agencies, and further depleted protections for immigrants.”

For some young people, the ruling is personal. Emily Rodriguez, a first-generation American born prematurely with a weakened immune system, said her parents came to the U.S. seeking a better life after leaving behind poverty and violence.

“Having health insurance meant that we could go to the doctor, get medication and get the care that we needed,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez, 18 and college-bound, said she was devastated when she learned Trump had signed the executive order denying birthright citizenship to people like her. She’ll carry that memory with her when she votes for the first time this year.

“That is something that I don’t think is a given,” Rodriguez said. “My voice matters, because this country recognizes me as an American. Every young person deserves that same certainty about where they belong and what future they can build.”

Ali Bella, who turns 18 this October, will also be eligible to vote for the first time in the midterm elections.

“A child doesn’t choose where they’re born. A child does not choose where their parents were born. So why should any child have their rights taken away because of circumstances they never chose,” Bella said. “I’ll be able to vote. Imagine taking that voice away from millions of people simply because of who their parents are.”

For more information on Trump’s proposed Birthright Citizenship Executive Order, visit www.naacpldf.org/case-issue/know-your-rights-birthright-citizenship/.

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