Human Rights First Warns of Far-Reaching Harms of Supreme Court’s Order in Birthright Citizenship Case
Washington, D.C. – Today, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Trump v. Casa Inc., et al, a consolidated matter before the Court involving emergency applications by the Trump Administration in several cases challenging President Trump’s illegal Birthright Citizenship Executive Order. In its ruling, the Supreme Court granted the government’s request to partially stay several nationwide injunctions that had been issued by lower courts barring the administration from stripping U.S.-born babies of birthright citizenship while judicial proceedings are ongoing. The decision unjustly permits the administration to move forward with effectuating the Executive Order against anyone not a plaintiff in these actions while the cases challenging the legality of the Executive Order are being litigated.
“There is no question the Birthright Citizenship Executive Order is illegal. Indeed, the Trump Administration brought this emergency motion in such a way as to avoid having the merits of its Executive Order considered by the Supreme Court, by asking the Court to allow only the particular plaintiffs who brought suit to be protected against the application of the E.O. to their children,” said Uzra Zeya, President and CEO of Human Rights First. “But for the vast majority of immigrant parents without the ability to file lawsuits themselves, and for the states where American children subject to this Executive Order are born, this decision will cause untold chaos and confusion. Citizenship is too fundamental a right, and this Executive Order is too plainly unconstitutional, to be allowed to hang in suspense pending the ultimate resolution of multiple parallel lawsuits.”
Zeya concluded, “By limiting federal courts’ ability to check executive branch overreach through the issuance of nationwide injunctions, the Supreme Court removed an essential safeguard against the Trump administration’s most blatantly illegal actions.”
President Trump’s January 2025 Executive Order unlawfully denies citizenship to children born in the United States unless at least one parent is a U.S. citizen or holds permanent immigration status. The Order blatantly violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution and the immigration statute. Human Rights First warned of the harms and illegality of this and other Executive Orders issued by President Trump that violate U.S. statutory and constitutional protections while targeting immigrants and their families.
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