The Supreme Court today upheld birthright citizenship in a 6-3 ruling in Trump v. Barbara, with Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito dissenting.
“Birthright citizenship is foundational to ensuring Black Americans’ humanity, equality, and full place in our democracy,” said Mona Tawatao, Legal Director of the Equal Justice Society. “This is what the drafters of the Fourteenth Amendment intended, and today the executive order to revoke this sacred right was rightly struck down.”
“Birthright citizenship is the safeguard that keeps the United States from becoming a racialized caste society where the government decides who counts and who does not. It ensures that every child born here, no matter their race or their parents’ status, enters our democracy as an equal. The split decision on an executive order that should have never been issued in the first place reminds us that the fight to protect, preserve, and justly expand our civil rights continues,” said Tawatao.
In February 2026, EJS joined the NAACP and the League of Women Voters in an amicus brief filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law urging the Supreme Court to invalidate the executive order issued by President Donald Trump seeking to revoke birthright citizenship for individuals born in the United States to undocumented persons or temporary legal residents.
The amicus brief explicitly centered racial justice and emphasized that birthright citizenship is not a matter of political debate or preference, but rather a right rooted in the purpose of the Reconstruction Amendments, which established and protect the full personhood and civil rights of Black Americans and other historically excluded communities.
The brief also made the case that the executive order would erode American democracy by diminishing the ability of Black Americans and other communities of color to meaningfully participate in democracy. Had the order not been invalidated, it would have drastically reshaped the electorate and reimposed a racial hierarchy previously abolished by the Reconstruction Amendments.
The Equal Justice Society’s amicus efforts are part of its ongoing legal strategy that also includes litigation and policy advocacy. EJS is also a member of United for Democracy, a diverse and growing coalition of 160 grassroots organizations, labor unions, and advocates for reproductive rights, gun violence prevention, the environment, workers’ rights and more. Representing tens of millions of Americans, the coalition calls on Congress to rein in the Supreme Court’s unchecked powers.