{"id":213156,"date":"2025-08-06T16:06:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T20:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/?p=213156"},"modified":"2025-12-05T14:14:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T19:14:16","slug":"trumps-birthright-citizenship-executive-order-what-happens-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/immigrants-rights\/trumps-birthright-citizenship-executive-order-what-happens-next","title":{"rendered":"Trump's Birthright Citizenship Executive Order: What Happens Next"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"metadata":[1764,1763,1756,1750,2024,1751,1755,1769,2026,1768],"class_list":["post-213156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","metadata-advocacy-news","metadata-context","metadata-explainer","metadata-layout","metadata-length","metadata-listicle-roundup","metadata-narrative-frame","metadata-national-affiliate-staff","metadata-standard","metadata-voice"],"acf":{"header_layout":"full-bleed","header_image":213164,"mobile_header_image":213166,"description":"Children born to parents who are undocumented or have temporary status will retain their right to birthright citizenship, but the fight is heading to the Supreme Court. ","authors":[1767],"components":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"This article was updated Dec 5, 2025.<\/i>\r\n\r\nToday, the Supreme Court announced that it will hear oral argument in our birthright citizenship case. The case blocks President Donald Trump's executive order seeking to take away the right to birthright citizenship for many native-born American children, even though the 14th Amendment guarantees that right. \r\n\r\nJust hours after the president signed the birthright citizenship order last January, the American Civil Liberties Union and our partners sued to block that cruel and lawless action, as did other groups of plaintiffs around the country. Although the order has never been allowed to go into effect, the legal landscape is somewhat complex, with multiple legal challenges and appeals, and even a prior trip to the Supreme Court on a procedural question. \r\n\r\nBelow, we lay out where birthright citizenship stands today and what happens next. "}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"The Fight for Birthright Citizenship, Explained","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"mark"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Trump signed his birthright citizenship executive order on the first day of his second term. That same day, the ACLU and our partners filed a lawsuit, NHICS v. Donald J. Trump<\/i><\/a>, challenging the order in federal court. Within days, other legal challenges followed and several judges issued injunctions that blocked the order, temporarily halting enforcement and preventing harm while the legal challenges proceeded.\r\n\r\nIn response, the Trump administration filed emergency applications asking the Supreme Court to narrow the injunctions, or blocks, on the law by limiting protections from the entire country to just a handful of individual plaintiffs. On June 27, the Supreme Court issued a ruling on those emergency applications. \r\n\r\nIn Trump v. CASA, Inc.<\/i><\/a> the court limited the availability of what\u2019s known as \u201cuniversal injunctions.\u201d These legal tools prohibit or require certain actions not just for the parties involved in a particular case, but for all persons or entities. The Supreme Court limited the availability of these universal injunctions in general, but ultimately left it to lower courts to decide whether broad relief was justified in these particular birthright cases. That raised the possibility that, if the lower courts did restrict relief, tens of thousands of U.S.-born babies could be left vulnerable to arrest, deportation, discrimination, and denial of critical early-life nutrition and health care.\r\n\r\nImmediately after the CASA <\/i>ruling, the ACLU and our partners filed a new class action lawsuit, Barbara v. Donald J. Trump<\/i><\/a>. A class action lawsuit is a different legal tool that can also broadly block harmful or unconstitutional policies. We identified a class of people \u2013 in this case all children born on U.S. soil to parents who are undocumented or have temporary status \u2013 and asked the court to let us proceed with the case on behalf of the entire class (called \u201cclass certification\u201d) and to block the executive order as to everyone in the class. On July 10, a federal court provisionally granted nationwide class certification, recognizing the protected class and again blocking the executive order from taking effect while questions over the legality of Trump\u2019s order continue to move through the courts."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"Where the Legal Battle Stands Now","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"mark"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Right now, every child whose citizenship was threatened by the executive order is protected. While the legal fight is not over, these families can now take solace in knowing that they are protected while the cases make their way through the courts.\r\n\r\nThe fight over \u201cuniversal injunctions\u201d that culminated in the Supreme Court\u2019s CASA<\/i> decision and limited how this legal tool is used will have significant implications for future cases. But the Trump administration\u2019s procedural win in that case was ultimately an empty victory when it comes to birthright citizenship. The Barbara<\/i> injunction protects everyone and it is not vulnerable to the kind of arguments that the government offered in CASA<\/i>. In fact, the Supreme Court pointed to class actions, like Barbara<\/i>, as an appropriate way to obtain nationwide protection."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"Where the Fight Goes From Here","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"mark"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"The Supreme Court just announced today it will hear our case challenging President Trump\u2019s attempt to deny birthright citizenship to babies born in the U.S. We\u2019re prepared to remind the court that the administration\u2019s attempt to end birthright citizenship is a direct violation of the 14th Amendment. \r\n\r\nAt this moment, while arguments are ongoing, our win in Barbara <\/i>ensures that there is no reason for families to fear whether they need to move, give birth in another state, or take other drastic steps to secure their children\u2019s citizenship. Expectant parents can feel confident that their babies will still be recognized as U.S. citizens at birth \u2014 regardless of their immigration status or where they live.\r\n\r\nBirthright citizenship isn\u2019t just a legal doctrine \u2014 it\u2019s central to who we are as a nation. It reflects that all children born in this country belong here, and are equal members of our national community, no matter who their parents may be. The Constitution is on our side, and the ACLU will keep fighting to ensure this remains a fundamental right for future generations. "}},{"acf_fc_layout":"divider","divider":{"divider_type":"hr"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"ACLU\u2019s co-counsel in the NHICS and Barbara cases are: NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Asian Law Caucus, Democracy Defenders Fund, and ACLU\u2019s of New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts. Our organizational clients in NHICS are New Hampshire Indonesian Community Support, League of United Latin American Citizens, and Make the Road New York.<\/i>"}}],"featured_cases_section":{"enable_featured_cases":false,"title":"Featured Cases","description":"","featured_cases":null},"action":[148398],"issues":[46529],"related_content_cases":[211524],"related_content_documents":"","related_content_publications":"","related_affiliates":"","content_layout":"standard","theme":"light","drupal_nid":""},"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Children born to parents who are undocumented or have temporary status will retain their right to birthright citizenship, but the fight is heading to the Supreme Court. 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