Supreme Court Affirms What Leading Civil Rights Organizations Have Always Known: Children Born Here are U.S. Citizens

SUPREME COURT AFFIRMS WHAT LEADING CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS HAVE ALWAYS KNOWN: CHILDREN BORN HERE ARE U.S. CITIZENS

A coalition of leading civil rights organizations issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision fully affirming the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment:

"Today the Court affirmed what we have argued from the beginning: every child born in the United States is an American citizen. That principle, unchanged for more than a century, continues to stand.

"Congress wrote the clear language of the Fourteenth Amendment in a repudiation to one of the Court’s most shameful decisions, Dred Scott v. Sandford. President Trump sought to redefine the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment on his first day in office with this Executive Order and create a class of people born on American soil but denied the full rights and privileges of citizenship. The majority of the Supreme Court rejects that effort today.

"We receive today’s decision with a sigh of relief. The U.S. Constitution held. But this is not a case that should have reached the Supreme Court. Birthright citizenship was added to the U.S. Constitution during Reconstruction and codified into law to ensure citizenship for all, irrespective of race or color, including formerly enslaved African Americans and their descendants.

"But African Americans did not fully become citizens until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A law that this Court severely weakened just a few short months ago. While we appreciate that birthright citizenship remains the law of the land, we will not be fully free until our voting rights are once again restored."

National Urban League

NAACP

National Action Network

Legal Defense Fund

Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

National Council of Negro Women

National Coalition on Black Civic Participation