Journalism of Courage
US President Donald Trump’s administration has asked the US Supreme Court to support his order restricting birthright citizenship for children born in the country to parents who are in the United States illegally or on temporary visas.
The request, shared with the Associated Press (AP) on Saturday, starts a process that could lead to a ruling by early summer on whether the limits are constitutional. Lower courts have so far blocked the order from being enforced nationwide. The administration is not asking the justices to allow the restrictions to take effect before they rule.
The Justice Department’s petition has been sent to lawyers for those challenging the order but has not yet appeared on the Supreme Court’s docket.
Solicitor General D John Sauer wrote in the government’s brief that lower court rulings “invalidated a policy of prime importance to the president and his administration in a manner that undermines our border security.” He added that those rulings gave “without lawful justification, the privilege of American citizenship on hundreds of thousands of unqualified people.”
Cody Wofsy, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union who represents children affected by the order, told AP: “This executive order is illegal, full stop, and no amount of manoeuvring from the administration is going to change that. We will continue to ensure that no baby’s citizenship is ever stripped away by this order.”
Trump signed the measure on the first day in the White House. It challenges more than 125 years of legal interpretation that the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to almost all children born on US soil, except those of foreign diplomats or members of a foreign occupying force.
