Hundreds rally for birthright citizenship at supreme court: ‘We are an immigrant nation’ | US supreme court
About 250 demonstrators filled the steps of the Supreme Court on Wednesday, chanting slogans defending birthright citizenship as Donald Trump himself watched from the public gallery in an unprecedented appearance.
Beija McCarter, an eighth-grade history teacher in the US, and Noah Goldstein, a New Yorker who attended last month’s trans rights rally, came to the show with little optimism about what the inside judges might decide.
“Checks and balances only work if there is balance, and we don’t really have that,” said McCarter, who was born in Brazil to American military parents and had to formally apply for his own citizenship, giving him a small window into a process that is much more difficult for most. “There’s talk that immigrants are taking our jobs, but they’re actually doing jobs that Americans don’t expect to do; we should be nicer to our neighbors.”
Goldstein was equally blunt about the court: “All nine of the justices there know that birthright citizenship was codified by the fourteenth amendment, and I’m not sure they’re going to talk about things they know to be true.”
“You can only hope they take their jobs seriously,” McCarter interjected.
Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, also joined the crowd outside the court as the lawsuit challenging Trump’s executive order, filed by the national ACLU as well as ACLU chapters in Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire, was discussed. He said the mood among the demonstrators was one of joy and optimism.
“Trump wants the story to be about him, but that’s not the story today; the story today is about the constitution and the Bill of Rights,” Rose said.
On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order targeting birthright citizenship, directing a reinterpretation of the constitution that runs counter to 158-year-old precedents. His administration framed the decision as the correct reading of the law, despite widespread disagreement in the courts.
If the policy is ultimately approved, hundreds of thousands of children born in the United States each year could be denied access to automatic citizenship. The final decision is expected to be made this summer.
Social activist and first speaker Bishop William Barber, who performed at the rally, framed the case explicitly in spiritual terms, calling the decree “an unholy attack on infants and children” that goes against the teachings of many faiths. He warned that revoking birthright citizenship would deprive millions of children of health care, protection from deportation and the promise of basic justice.
“There would be nothing noble about ending birthright citizenship,” he said.
He also pushed back on how the court majority is typically defined. “I’m not calling them conservatives, they’re extremists,” he said, adding that a decision against birthright citizenship would have only one logical consequence: “We should go to the top of that building and take away equal protection under the law.”
While the majority of the justices in the courtroom are skeptical of the government’s stance, it remains unclear how many may ultimately side with Trump. The case represents one of the court’s signature policy efforts, coming after it had already struck down the tariffs, and a ruling against it would mark another major legal setback.
Robin Galeraith drove from Maryland to get there and was encouraged by the size of the crowd but wary of the outcome.
“It’s great to see so many people defending the Constitution and defending the things that make our country great; we’re a nation of immigrants and that’s why we’ve thrived for so long,” he said.
He dismissed Trump’s appearance on the bench as the behavior of someone motivated more by fear than power, and expressed concern that outside financial influence had distorted the ideological make-up of the bench.
“Unfortunately, our supreme court has sort of been bought and paid for by the super-rich,” he said. “And that’s really concerning because our nation isn’t supposed to be a nation of just the rich.”
Among those taking to the stage to address the crowd was celebrity chef José Andrés, an immigrant from the United States whose appearance garnered one of the biggest reactions of the morning.
“My three daughters were born here,” he told the crowd. “So let me tell you something. My three daughters are as American as anyone else, and no one can take that away from them.”
She ended the meeting by challenging everyone gathered: “The American dream in the 21st Century means that we must all work hard to ensure that we all have the same rights as my daughters and the same opportunities that we want for our own children.”
