US Supreme Court rejects birthright citizenship curbs
A divided U.S. Supreme Court backed a broad understanding of birthright citizenship by rejecting President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that children born to people living in the United States illegally or temporarily are not citizens.
In ruling that, with very limited exceptions, everyone born in the United States is a citizen, the justices relied on a long-settled understanding of the 14th amendment and newer federal laws passed after the Civil War.
The 6-3 ruling marked the second time this year that the court invalidated a major initiative by Trump, following his decision to cut global tariffs in February.
Referring to congressional debate over the amendment, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court: “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to enjoy the rights freely to participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment made this promise ‘to every freeborn in this territory.'”
The justices upheld a lower court’s ruling blocking Trump’s executive order ordering U.S. agencies not to recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States if neither parent is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, also called a “green card” holder.
Opponents of Trump’s order argued that it violated language in the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which grants citizenship to people born in the US who are “subject to its jurisdiction.”
During arguments in April, both conservative and progressive justices questioned the legality of the administration’s decision in a landmark case that was magnified by Trump’s unprecedented courtroom appearance.
Trump’s order would overturn the widely held view that the 14th amendment grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States, except only the children of foreign diplomats and those born in a foreign occupying power.
Trump issued the order on his first day in office last year as part of a series of policies aimed at curbing illegal immigration.
During the arguments, U.S. Attorney D. John Sauer, representing the administration, said the promise of citizenship to nearly every baby born on U.S. soil had given rise to what he called a growing “birth tourism” industry.
Sauer said that “in recent years, countless aliens from potentially hostile countries have flocked to give birth in the United States to provide citizenship for their children.”
Asked to explain how serious a problem “birth tourism” has become, Sauer acknowledged that “nobody knows for sure,” citing primarily media reports.
The 14th amendment was ratified in 1868, following the 1861-1865 Civil War that ended slavery in the United States and overturned the infamous 1857 Supreme Court decision declaring that people of African descent could never become U.S. citizens.
During the debates, Sauer explained what he saw as the limited purpose of the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, saying that it was intended to “grant citizenship to newly freed slaves and their children whose allegiance to the United States has resided therein for generations.”
The legal challenge to Trump’s directive being considered by the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, included a class-action lawsuit filed in New Hampshire by parents and children whose citizenship was threatened by the directive.
The Supreme Court weighed in on what it means to be a US citizen ahead of the July 4 holiday, when the US celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding.
with AP
