HARTFORD, CT — While both sides claimed victory Friday, the status of birthright citizenship remains unclear despite the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding President Donald Trump’s executive order attempting to limit it.
In a 6-3 ruling along the court’s ideological lines, the Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of Trump’s executive order, or the precedent of birthright citizenship that has stood since the end of the Civil War, when the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed citizenship to anyone born in the United States. Instead, the court ruled that the lower courts which issued nationwide injunctions against the president’s executive order had overstepped their bounds.
Attorney General William Tong in a Friday media briefing said birthright citizenship remains the law of the land, but that the ruling had not resolved the “chaos” caused by the president’s executive order. He also said while the court has limited the ability for private parties to receive universal injunctions, he expects to win at the district court level when it comes to states receiving universal injunctions when suing the federal government.
“Ronald Reagan said famously that birthright citizenship is part of the essential character of our nation and who we are,” Tong said. “And it’s really important that this promise, this covenant that the Constitution commits to people who are born here has, since the enactment of the Fourteenth Amendment, always been part of the essential character of who we are as a nation.”
The Supreme Court returned the case to the district courts, instructing them to reconsider the scope of their injunctions.
Trump praised the decision, saying a handful of “radical left” judges had used the universal injunction in recent months to try to overrule the rightful powers of the president, and to stop the American people from getting the policies they voted for.
Trump said he would use the ruling to begin the process of enforcing several of his most controversial immigration policies, including birthright citizenship, ending sanctuary city funding, suspending refugee resettlement, and others.
Condemnation of the Supreme Court’s decision from Democrats across the state was swift.
“This decision leaves families across the country in a state of fear and uncertainty about the future of their children,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT, in a statement. “The Supreme Court has chipped away at two bedrock constitutional principles: the guarantee of birthright citizenship and an American justice system that can serve as an effective check and balance to prevent illegal and unconstitutional actions by the government.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, called the ruling “profoundly troubling” and accused the Supreme Court of shrinking from the responsibility of upholding the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship.
“In a single decision, the Court turned a blind eye to the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine a right explicitly stated in the 14th Amendment and dismantled an important mechanism for challenging unconstitutional government actions in federal court,” they said in a joint statement. “While this ruling directly threatens one constitutional protection, its implications could extend far beyond, putting at risk rights Americans have long considered settled. When the Court turns its back on such foundational principles, it raises serious questions about its commitment to the rights and values it exists to protect.”