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.