Statement on the Birthright Citizenship decision: A broken Court gets it right…but the threat remains.
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
On June 30th, the Supreme Court struck down the Trump Administration’s executive order ending birthright citizenship in the Trump v. Barbara case. While the Workers Center for Racial Justice (WCRJ) acknowledges that the Court ultimately made the right decision in this case, we refuse to applaud a broken system.
As the saying goes, a broken clock is right twice a day. The true crisis is that this extreme, white nationalist challenge to the 14th Amendment was ever treated as a legitimate debate in the first place.
The 14th Amendment was ratified to permanently bury the Supreme Court's infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision, which declared that Black people had "no rights which the white man was bound to respect." By explicitly enshrining that anyone born on American soil is a citizen, the Reconstruction Framers sought to forever strip the ruling class of the power to decide who belongs. For 128 years, since the landmark Wong Kim Ark case secured these same rights for the children of immigrants, that principle remained untouched.
By taking up Trump v. Barbara, this Court signaled that the foundational rights to exist and belong in this country are up for “renegotiation”. This executive order was never a legitimate legal theory; it was a white nationalist power grab designed to allow the state to hand-pick its electorate by denying citizenship to the children of Black and Brown people and undocumented immigrants.
We must not let today's ruling blind us to the track record of this Court. In less than 15 years, these justices have systematically dismantled the victories of the Civil Rights movement:
Furthermore, the dissents and concurring opinions in today's ruling show exactly where the Right will strike next. Three out of nine justices - Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch - openly invited Congress to pass legislation to strip away these very protections.
This administration and its hard-right allies will not stop here. They will return with new cases, new legislation, and new tactics to challenge the 14th Amendment. When they do, we cannot rely on the shifting winds of a hostile judiciary to save us.
WCRJ believes that our citizenship and our dignity are not granted by the whim of judges. They are won and defended by the people.
We must take action now: on the blocks, in the streets, and in the hallways of state houses and Congress across the nation. If we do not organize to protect the foundation of our rights, it is only a matter of time before they strip away the rest. |
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