By Melissa Cruz
American Immigration Council
The Supreme
Court issued a decision in the CASA v. Trump case on Friday, handing
the Trump administration a major win by limiting judges’ ability to block
unlawful policies nationwide.
This could open the door for conflicting rules about who is guaranteed
birthright citizenship, largely dependent upon where they live.
What does this
mean for birthright citizenship?
Birthright
citizenship guarantees if you’re born in the United States, you are
automatically a U.S. citizen. It helps guarantee that all people are equal
under the law, regardless of background or ancestry.
The Court
didn’t rule on the constitutionality of birthright citizenship itself, so the
ruling doesn’t end birthright citizenship—yet. But it certainly raises the
stakes.
The role of
nationwide injunctions
Friday’s ruling
addressed three lawsuits that were filed against Trump’s executive order
seeking to deny birthright citizenship to children born in the U.S. to
undocumented parents or certain noncitizens on temporary visas. The judges in
those lawsuits granted nationwide injunctions against Trump’s birthright
citizenship executive order, arguing that it violated the Citizenship Clause of
the 14th Amendment.
Nationwide injunctions have been granted against Republican and Democratic
policies alike. But SCOTUS ruled that, in most cases, district court judges
cannot issue nationwide injunctions to block federal policies. They can only
grant relief to the individuals or groups who brought a particular lawsuit.
This could mean
that courts would be forced to allow harmful or unconstitutional policies to
take effect in some places or against some individuals while being blocked in
others—creating a chaotic and confusing patchwork of rules.
What is next
for birthright citizenship?
First, the
Executive Order cannot go into effect for 30 days. But depending on what
happens in the lower courts during that time period (including whether they are
certified as class actions), there could now be drastically different outcomes
for a lawsuit depending on what state or circuit you’re living in. That’s
especially dangerous in high-stakes cases like this, where people’s fundamental
constitutional rights, status, and safety are on the line.
The United States could be looking at a scenario in which a baby born to
undocumented or immigrant parents in California or Maryland might still be
issued a U.S. birth certificate and recognized as a citizen (because of ongoing
litigation there). But possibly, a baby born the same day in Texas or Florida
might not be recognized as a U.S. citizen — depending on how lower federal
courts deal with the existing lawsuits and whether new lawsuits are filed.
At the end of the day, constitutional protections like birthright citizenship
shouldn’t depend on where you live or whether you can file a lawsuit in time.
Unfortunately, this ruling has created a reality in which that could be the
case.