Groups File Nationwide Class Action Lawsuit Over Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order

16 comments

1. Birthright citizenship is enshrined in the Constitution and only Congress has the authority to amend it, not the Supreme Court.

2. Trump will be known as the best president of all time. Specifically the best at getting sued.

   Fuck Trump and everyone that sucks his teet because they are all anti-American traitors intent on inflicting suffering and death on anyone that isn’t part of their single brain cell sharing cult.

3. Remember that Trump seems to think that the citizenship clause only applies to “slave babies.”

   > “It had to do with Civil War results, and the babies of slaves who our politicians felt, correctly, needed protection,” he continued. “Please explain this to the Supreme Court of the United States.”

   Umm, no… The Supreme Court didn’t need explaining in this case, conservatives could have either upheld the constitution, or, in this case, grant the Trump executive even more authority to use it as toilet paper while unilaterally issuing aggressive immigration policies without having to face checks from the judiciary.

   So much for “constitutional originalism” when these conservative supreme Court justices can interpret the law however they see fit, weighing their judicial duty and traditionalism against the prospect of fundamentally changing this country’s legal and moral landscape to fit in line with *their* values, and for the foreseeable future no less.

   That aside, the 14th amendment firmly establishes birthright citizenship. Yes, it was created in response to the Dred Scott decision, which prohibited African Americans from becoming citizens of the United States, a decision considered by some constitutional scholars to be the worst Supreme Court ruling in US history.

   However, it was also invoked in the landmark case, United States v. Wong Kim Ark.

   Wong was born in San Francisco to Chinese parents and first generation immigrants who had established permanent residency in the US and even owned a business.

   When Wong returned to the US after a trip to China, he was denied re-entry and then detained under the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act.

   Wong was detained on steamships in the San Francisco Bay for several months despite having all the proper documentation and identification forms on him. This included a photograph of Wong and a departure statement that was signed by three witnesses attesting to his identity.

   His detention lasted until the courts eventually ruled in his favor. The Supreme Court ruled that the citizenship clause of the fourteenth amendment grants citizenship to all persons ***born in the United States***, and regardless of their parents nationality.

   This decision set a fundamental precedent for interpreting the fourteenth’s citizenship clause, an over century’s long precedent that Trump and his coalition of bigots, nativists and xenophobes are seeking to overturn.

   This case should be open and shut. Instead, the court did not decide whether Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship is legal or constitutional, and chose to essentially eliminate barriers that would otherwise act as checks against his unconstitutional whims.

   I’m sure it doesn’t need to be explained that this will set a major precedent moving forward.

   Letting the Trump executive impose its will on the country without pushback from judges is a dangerous road to go down. Trump has already signed over 160 executive orders, many of which have been challenged by the courts due to the nature of their unconstitutionality.

   Trump and his allies have been defying court orders, threatening judges, ignoring checks and balances and taking actions that openly violate the constitution. Not only has Trump faced little accountability for these unlawful acts, but his administration is being enabled all along the way by MAGA loyalists and extremists.

   The fact that this case has even gotten this far is ominous in itself. And Trump will have always found a way to spin the ruling in his favor.

   If the courts were to rule that ending birthright citizenship is unconstitutional for instance, he would have used the opportunity to push the narrative that he’s the victim of a corrupt justice system. But now that SCOTUS has limited the ability of federal judges to challenge Trump’s blatantly unconstitutional orders, he will see it as another “mandate” to start pursuing more authoritarian immigration policies, all while touting that he was right all along about “activist judges” unfairly blocking his agenda.

   Republicans have put civil rights on the chopping block. And as the courts just offered the Trump administration an ostensible “win,” the GOP will now feel empowered to start chipping away at every clause that protects the rights, freedoms and civil liberties of non-citizens and citizens alike that they’ve held in disregard for years, and they will no doubt set their sights predominantly on the civil rights of marginalized and vulnerable groups.

   In fact, The Fourteenth Amendment is in particular danger here because nearly every clause belonging to the amendment protects civil rights and privileges that Republicans have been threatening to invalidate over the years in some form or another.

   There’s the citizenship clause, the due process clause, the equal protection clause, and the privileges and immunities clause. There’s also the clause prohibiting insurrectionists from holding office. Hmm…

   Some constitutional scholars argue that The Fourteenth Amendment is considered to be one of the most consequential amendments in US history. Which is precisely why it has earned itself the title of “the cornerstone of civil rights in the United States.”

   As many of you may know, decisions made in cases like Brown v. Board of education and Roe v. Wade invoked the 14th.

   One or more of its clauses have been cited countless times throughout this country’s history, and they have also been the basis for many landmark SCOTUS decisions.

   At the rate that they are consolidating power, Republicans will have no choice but to strike while the iron is hot. They haven’t been in a better position in decades to retool the rule of law in their favor.

4. > Immigrants rights’ advocates on Friday filed a nationwide class action lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship, just hours after the Supreme Court partially blocked nationwide injunctions challenging Trump’s order.

   > The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Legal Defense Fund and other groups, was brought on behalf of a class of babies subject to the executive order, along with their parents. It charges the Trump administration with flouting the Constitution, congressional intent, and longstanding Supreme Court precedent.

   > It is also a direct response to the Supreme Court’s decision earlier Friday that puts new limits on nationwide injunctions, and reflects a new legal pathway that groups will likely turn to when challenging the Trump administration’s unlawful actions.

   > In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the high court struck down nationwide injunctions against Trump’s birthright citizenship order, narrowing their scope to provide relief to the specific plaintiff who is suing in a case rather than anyone who would be affected by the order. In addition to drawing sharp criticism from constitutional experts, the court’s decision is a major blow to pro-democracy groups that have been successfully challenging Trump’s lawlessness through the use of injunctions.

   > But the justices left the door open to challenging the administration in other ways, like class action lawsuits. The ACLU and its cohorts wasted no time using this legal pathway.

   > In a statement, the groups behind the new lawsuit noted that three lawsuits previously obtained nationwide injunctions protecting everyone subject to Trump’s executive order, but the Supreme Court’s decision narrowed those injunctions and potentially leaves children without protections.

   > “Every court to have looked at this cruel order agrees that it is unconstitutional,” Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project and lead attorney in this case, said in a statement. “The Supreme Court’s decision did not remotely suggest otherwise, and we are fighting to make sure President Trump cannot trample on the citizenship rights of a single child.”

5. Up next, the Court will rule that there are problems certifying the class, and will send it back to the trial court — 18 months from now.

   And in the meantime, hundreds of thousand of babies will be born as stateless persons in violation of the clear text of the US Constititon.

6. Look this may sound obvious that people would try but I feel the need to point it out anyway.

   It inspires me to see people so ready to fight. Not even a day after such a blow in SCOTUS, the people are back with a completely new strategy. That is the true America. Different people from different cultures coming together to fight for freedom and civil rights. Not blind obedience to a tyrant.

7. Good

8. So how do I prove citizenship? A birth certificate only proves I was born here.

   Do I have to prove that one of my parents are citizens? And if they only have birth certificates?

   Do I have to provide pedigree all the way back to my first naturalized ancestor?

9. they had this ready to go trump didn’t even have time to celebrate the Supreme court effectively killing it besides class action and other avenues

10. Good. We should start a nationwide class action against Lump for blocking our pursuit of happiness too.

11. Do what TACO does. Keep these fascists tied up on court for as long as possible.

12. Man, you guys sure do love your illegals

13. Yeah it’s gonna be interesting to see how this plays out, but this is exactly how the SC (conservatives included) said things need to proceed. I very specifically remember Kavanaugh saying during the oral arguments that class action injunctions would functionally be no different from universal injunctions, but the process matters.

    It’s entirely valid to ask what the fuck was the point of this then if it’s all gonna end up the same way, but here we are.

14. California: see ya later guns/2a

15. Which will do what exactly. Make him pay? Change course? Appear in court?

16. don’t see how that order holds up in court. It’s been settled law for over a century

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