COURTS
Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship
New Mexico attorney general praises decision, calling it a victory for the rule of law
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday reaffirmed the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship. It rejected an executive order from President Donald Trump seeking to limit the constitutional guarantee.
New Mexico Attorney General Ra煤l Torrez praised the decision, calling the ruling a victory for the rule of law and constitutional protections.
"Today's decision reaffirms one of the clearest promises in the 近距离内射合集 States Constitution: if you are born on American soil, you are an American citizen," Torrez said in a statement.
Torrez called the executive order "a blatant abuse of executive authority" and said the court reaffirmed that "no president has the power to strip constitutional rights from children born in this country."
The decision in Barbara v. Trump upheld the principle that children born in the 近距离内射合集 States are citizens under the 14th Amendment's Citizenship Clause.
Trump signed the executive order on his first day back in office, seeking to limit birthright citizenship for certain children born in the 近距离内射合集 States to noncitizen parents.
A coalition of states, including New Mexico, challenged the order in federal court. Preliminary nationwide injunctions blocked the policy from taking effect while the litigation proceeded.
Torrez earlier joined a coalition of 24 state attorneys general and the City and County of San Francisco in filing a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that the executive order violated the 14th Amendment. The brief also argued that implementing the order would have imposed significant legal, financial and administrative burdens on states.
The 6-3 Supreme Court decision protects citizenship for more than a quarter million babies born in America each year, according to research by the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University鈥檚 Population Research Institute.
鈥淐itizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights 鈥 to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to 鈥榚very free-born person in this land,鈥欌 Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, citing congressional debate over the amendment. 鈥淲e keep that promise today.鈥
Three conservative justices would have allowed the restrictions to take effect.
鈥淭he Court today takes the extraordinary step of holding facially unconstitutional the President鈥檚 Order excluding from citizenship the children of foreign temporary visitors and illegal aliens,鈥 Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a 91-page dissent, more than three times as long as Roberts' opinion.
鈥淚n doing so, the Court adds to the sad history of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed and understood to secure equal rights for the freed blacks but has instead been repurposed for political projects that the Reconstruction Congress did not support.鈥
Trump was the first president to sit in on oral arguments before the Supreme Court in April. He responded to the decision by asking Congress to take on the issue.
"The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation, with the support of the President, that has now been determined during this process," he wrote in on Truth Social.
"No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary! Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They have my Complete and Total Support!"
The American Civil Liberties Union argued the case before the Supreme Court. The lead lawyer said congressional action would go against the grain of American life.
"Ask any American what our citizenship rule is, and they will tell you if you're born here, you're a citizen, just like everyone else, and that couldn't be more fundamental to who we are as a nation," ACLU lawyer Cecelia Wang said.
U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fern谩ndez, D-N.M., responded on Facebook, saying 鈥渋f you are born in America, you are American. Simple constitutional concept.鈥 She criticized Trump and his adviser Stephen Miller for making it part of their immigration policy.
鈥淚t should not have taken the Supreme Court this long to overturn Trump and Stephen Miller鈥檚 attempts to declare who can and cannot be citizens,鈥 she said.
This report includes information from The Associated Press. It has been updated with comments Tuesday morning and afternoon.