John,
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution could not be more explicit: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States… are citizens of the United States.”
Our Founders designed the Constitution to be deliberately difficult to change, requiring extraordinary supermajorities in both Congress and the states -- to ensure that no one person, party, or momentary political trend can override the fundamental rights it guarantees.
But on the first day of his second term, Donald Trump ignored that process entirely. He issued an Executive Order declaring that the 14th Amendment -- one of the most foundational guarantees of equal citizenship in our democracy -- no longer applies. No Constitutional Amendment. No national debate. Just a decree from the Oval Office.
This is a direct assault on the rule of law and the system of checks and balances the Founders wrote into the Constitution to prevent exactly this kind of power grab.
And now, the Supreme Court -- in yet another 6-3 partisan decision -- has cleared a path for Trump’s overreach by sharply limiting the power of federal courts to block his executive order. Once again, they have weakened the Judiciary in favor of the Executive, eroding the very separation of powers that defines our democracy.
Use our tool to contact your state’s Attorney General. If your state has not yet joined the lawsuit, your letter will urge them to do so. If your state is already onboard, you’ll urge your AG to lead and build momentum in other states before the 30-day window closes.
The result? In the 22 states that are challenging the order in court, the policy is temporarily blocked. But in the 28 that haven’t sued, Trump’s new rule will go into effect within 30 days -- unless those states act now. That means the citizenship rights of children born in America will vary wildly depending on which state they’re in.
This chaotic patchwork defies not only the Constitution but common sense:
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A child born in California may be a citizen -- while a sibling born in Arizona might not be.
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A child with U.S. citizenship in one state could lose that recognition simply by crossing a state line.
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Families will be thrust into legal limbo, their children’s rights stripped or altered depending on geography.
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Public schools, hospitals, and state agencies could face impossible contradictions -- forced to recognize some children as citizens and others not, based solely on where they live or were born.
This isn’t a legal technicality. It’s a dangerous unraveling of what it means to be American. For decades, white supremacist movements have dreamed of ending birthright citizenship -- denying U.S.-born children their rights based on who their parents are. Now, they have a president determined to make that nightmare real.
This is the precise opposite of offering Dreamers a pathway to legal status. Instead of building a future for young people brought here as children, Trump wants to strip citizenship from children who were born here -- and create a permanent underclass without rights, without protection, and without recourse.
The Constitution was written to resist this kind of authoritarian overreach. It was not meant to bend to the will of a single man. But now that the Supreme Court has abdicated its role as a check on the Executive, it’s up to the states -- and to all of us -- to defend what the Founders built.
Send your message now to protect birthright citizenship -- and the Constitution itself.
Thank you for standing up for equal citizenship and the rule of law.
- DFA AF Team
