Media Contact: media@asianlawcaucus.org
SAN FRANCISCO - Today, the Asian Law Caucus, the nation’s first Asian American legal and civil rights organization, released a statement following the Supreme Court's decision limiting the power of federal courts to issue nationwide injunctions to protect all citizens and their families.
The ruling specifically makes it harder for courts to completely block the Trump Administration's unconstitutional attempt to end birthright citizenship, allowing a child's citizenship to depend on the state in which they are born or their pursuit of a legal challenge. However, the court ruled that the administration cannot implement the executive order for at least 30 days. This period allows advocates time to pursue other avenues to ensure that all families are protected.
In response to the decision, Aarti Kohli, executive director of the Asian Law Caucus, said:
"This Supreme Court decision has put American families at risk by allowing citizenship to vary state by state or to hinge on whether their parents can afford a lawyer. President Trump's unconstitutional executive order seeks to strip citizenship from millions of Americans across the country. Today's ruling makes it much harder for courts to protect all families from attacks on their fundamental rights.
"During a time of unprecedented attacks on the constitutional rights of people across this country, limiting courts' ability to provide emergency protection on a nationwide basis is both unfair and harmful to families. Because of today's decision, families in some states face uncertainty about the citizenship of their American-born children while families in other states remain protected. This patchwork system violates the constitutional promise that if you're born here, you're American.
“We are closely reviewing today's decision and will fight to ensure that no one is subject to this unconstitutional order. The right to birthright citizenship has been vital to Asian American communities and all Americans who have faced waves of exclusionary and discriminatory laws throughout our history. We believe this executive order is clearly unlawful, and we will continue to defend the rights of immigrant families."
In January, the Asian Law Caucus along with a number of other civil and immigrants’ rights groups sued the Trump Administration over its birthright citizenship executive order. That case is currently before the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, and oral arguments will take place on August 1, 2025.
Birthright citizenship is the principle that every baby born in the United States is a U.S. citizen. The Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantees the citizenship of all children born in the United States (with the extremely narrow exception of children of foreign diplomats) regardless of race, color, or ancestry. Specifically, it states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, overturning the Dred Scott decision that denied Black Americans the rights and protections of U.S. citizenship. In 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that children born in the United States to immigrant parents were entitled to U.S. citizenship, and the principle has remained an undisturbed constitutional bedrock for over a century.