Supreme Court to Hear Birthright Citizenship Case as Bishops File Moral Brief

Overview

• The U.S. bishops and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network filed an amicus brief on February 26 supporting birthright citizenship and warning that ending it would leave some U.S.-born children without a country.
• Commentators on the right attacked the filing, and the bishops later told staff their brief made moral claims about harm to children rather than asserting a God-given right to citizenship.
• Roughly seventy amicus briefs have been submitted, with most backing the families challenging President Trump’s executive order, which remains blocked in the lower courts.
• The Supreme Court has set oral arguments for April 1 in Trump v. Barbara, a case testing whether the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause can be narrowed by executive action.
• Legal scholars quoted by Raw Story warned a ruling for the president could pull in families with legal status, trigger new proof-of-status checks for newborns, and create an underclass of U.S.-born children.