Amicus Brief Challenging Executive Order No. 14,160
HRP Director Professor Gerald L. Neuman, together with Professors Kristin Collins and Rachel Rosenbloom, submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in a case challenging the legality of President Trump’s Executive Order No. 14,160. In the brief, they argue that the Executive Order, which purports to deny birthright citizenship to children born in the United States lacking a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident parent, is not only unconstitutional under the Citizenship Clause but also violates the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Specifically, Title 8 U.S.C. §1401(a) provides that “[a] person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” shall be a “citizen[] of the United States at birth.” The authors assert that Section 1401(a) provides an independent basis for decision because Executive Order 14,160 cannot repeal Congress’s statutory guarantee.
The brief draws on the Professors’ scholarly expertise and considers the legislative histories of the Nationality Act of 1940 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. The authors argue that the Executive Branch officials who drafted the statutory language and the legislators who enacted it did so with a clear understanding that they were codifying near-universal birthright citizenship, subject only to a few narrow, well-defined exceptions. They emphasize that neither the domicile nor lawful presence of the parents was relevant. The brief concludes that Congress adopted this consensus meaning in the 1940 Act, and reinforced that consensus by recodifying the same provision in the 1952 Act.
Click here to read the amicus brief.
