Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision affirms birthright citizenship.
By P.C. Staff
The Japanese American Citizens League issued a statement today concurring with the Supreme Court’s 6-3 rejection of the executive order that attempted to override the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which ensures all persons born in the United States and “subject to the jurisdiction thereof …” aka, U.S. soil, have U.S. citizenship.
In its statement, the JACL said it “ … celebrates the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Trump v. Barbara, which reaffirms the fundamental constitutional principle that every child born in the United States has a claim to citizenship, regardless of their parent’s immigration status.”
On Jan. 20, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14160, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” which attempted to override the 14th Amendment and bypass the lawful procedures by which the Constitution may be changed.
The JACL noted that even during World War II, when the federal government had forcibly removed and incarcerated U.S. citizens and legal resident aliens of Japanese descent, “birthright citizenship remained a critical safeguard. The Fourteenth Amendment protected the citizenship of children born in the United States, including children born to Issei parents who were classified by the government as ‘enemy aliens …’ ”
The 14th Amendment’s granting of birthright citizenship, which was added to the Constitution in 1868 during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, was affirmed in the landmark 1898 Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark.
See related story here.
To read the JACL’s entire statement, visit here.