The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected President Donald Trump's attempt to end birthright citizenship in the U.S. by executive order, reaffirming more than a century of legal precedent and national tradition that babies born on American soil are automatically American citizens. The 6-3 decision is a blow to Trump, who had lobbied the court to uphold his Day 1 order and attended oral arguments in the case, becoming the first sitting president to do so.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote: "Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights -- to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to every free-born person in this land. We keep that promise today."
Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito dissented from the decision. Thomas and Gorsuch wrote that neither the Constitution nor federal law "guaranteed citizenship to persons who were not domiciled in the United States." Thomas argued that domicile, or the place of legal permanent home, of a child's parents is the appropriate indicator of a child's citizenship, given the nation's history and tradition.
Trump had argued that children born to unlawful immigrants and temporary visitors, like tourists and foreign students, do not qualify for citizenship under terms of the 14th Amendment, which was enacted after the Civil War to address the status of former slaves and their descendants.
Birthright citizenship is a constitutional guarantee that has defined this nation for generations. Our country was built by immigrants, and we draw our strength from those who come here seeking a better life. Today's ruling preserves that promise for generations to come.
I am relieved for the children who will never know how close the American dream came to being taken from them, and for the families who will never have to explain to a child why the country they were born in refuses to accept them.
Every person born in the United States is an American. That was true yesterday, it is true today, and we will never stop fighting to make sure it remains true tomorrow.
