Section 1 of the 14^th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States provides that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens' of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”[1] This clause forms what is colloquially known as Birthright Citizenship, which guarantees any people born in the United States to US citizenship with very few exceptions. As of January 20th, 2025, this clause has come under attack by President Donald Trump who amongst the many executive orders enacted on his first day of his presidency stripped birthright citizenship from the 14^th Amendment.[2] Titling the executive order “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.”[3] This title betrays the fact that this order is nothing more than an attempt to excuse bypassing the Constitution. In addition, this issue has already definitively been decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. Putting aside the legal barriers, this is a morally reprehensible act that has the consequence of creating another needless caste in American society. This executive order, no matter how it is named, cannot be held up as it shamelessly tries to rewrite the Constitution, bypasses the power of the legislative branch and unethically tries to create inequality amongst citizens in the United States. 

Before getting into why Trump’s executive order is unconstitutional it should be noted the justification that Trump gives for his executive order.  Trump’s executive order claims that the 14^th Amendment has never been interpreted to give citizenship to everyone born in the United States.[4] Furthermore, the executive order claims that the 14^th Amendment was not meant to apply to those with parents who are unlawfully present, or were legally present but only temporarily.[5] These claims are not only refuted by reading the plain text of the 14^th Amendment itself but also by a past Supreme Court decision. The executive order claims that the words “subject to the jurisdiction thereof”[6] are the dispositive words for the birthright issue, but it is unconvincing. It ignores the fact that this phrase comes after the statement “all persons born or naturalized in the United States”[7] thus, implying that all people born in the United States fall under the jurisdiction of the United States. In addition, the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction of” already has exceptions the United States has established. The exceptions to this rule are children of foreign diplomats, children of enemy soldiers present in the United States during an occupation, and children of Native American tribes, who receive their citizenship under a separate law.[8] To extend these narrow exceptions to now apply to anyone who is born in the United States to undocumented parents is a grand overreach of power and has already been debunked by the Supreme Court. 

The Supreme Court decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark refutes the premise of Trump’s executive order that the 14^th amendment was never meant to apply to children born in the United States of non-citizen parents. This case focused on Wong Kim Ark who was born in San Francisco to two Chinese citizen parents and when on a return from a visit to China was stopped by customs and told that he was not allowed to return to the United States because he was not a U.S. citizen.[9] The Court in 1898 sided with Wong Kim Ark and stated he was a U.S. citizen regardless of parentage and affirmed the “fundamental rule of citizenship by birth within the territory”[10] establishing birthright citizenship as it is known today. They affirmatively stated that it does not matter if such children are “born of resident aliens.”[11]  Thus, the court definitively stated that the rule of the United States is that anyone born in the United States are citizens. Therefore, the Supreme Court should strike down Trump’s order. However, the current Supreme Court has struck down long lasting law that has protected people before such as with Roe v. Wade which protected abortion.[12] Therefore, it is up in the air how the current Supreme Court will rule. One can only hope that they ignore the flimsy logic of Trump and follow the doctrine of stare decisis and the precedent set by Wong Kim Ark to overturn Trump’s executive order.

Although Wong Kim Ark decided this issue over 100 years ago, the Supreme Court should also recognize that this is more than a 14^th Amendment issue but rather a separation of powers issue. This executive order clearly overreaches its authority, infringing on the powers of the legislative branch, the states, and the Constitution of the United States. Under Article V of the Constitution, amending the Constitution requires a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House to propose an amendment.[13] Then, this proposed amendment must be ratified by three-fourth of all state legislatures.[14] Thus, if the Court allows this to stand, it allows the Executive branch to rewrite the Constitution, the very bedrock the United States is built on without having the check of the legislative branch and all 50 states. This dangerous power should be struck down by the Supreme Court to prevent the executive branch from running unchecked.

Speaking personally on this matter as a child to two immigrants who worked tirelessly to provide for me, it is frankly infuriating that Trump’s claims that he is protecting the meaning and value of American Citizenship. American citizenship has not lost value over time due to the 14^th Amendment. To imply as much would imply that guaranteeing former slaves citizenship devalued American citizenship. To imply as much would suggest that children born to undocumented parents are worth less than those who are “actually” valued as citizens, since they were born to citizens. It does not matter that this does not apply retroactively; because it still sends the message that, starting now, the only real Americans are those with parents who were born here. Ignoring the fact that those people’s ancestors immigrated here, that they were once “the birth tourists”[15] as President Trump puts it. This is not an attempt to keep the value of citizenship up, it is an attempt to hoard the value of citizenship to only people who are already deemed valuable. President Trump is not king; he does not get to override the Constitution to choose who he extends his dominion over and decide who is worthy. I hope that the Supreme Court makes the sensible decision to overturn this executive order, one man should not decide the citizenship of people, many of my people.