Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. Barbara that Donald Trump’s executive order purporting to strip birthright citizenship from the American-born children of undocumented immigrants is unconstitutional.
In response, American Atheists president Nick Fish released the following statement:
I’m both relieved and appalled that the plain language of the Constitution — and a bedrock promise of America — was only preserved by a single vote at the Supreme Court.
Today’s ruling that anyone born in the United States, even to those present in the country only temporarily or without proper immigration status, are indeed citizens of the United States, as the 14th Amendment clearly states, is a victory for the rule of law and common sense, and a rebuke of the divisive and ahistoric ideology of the White Christian Nationalist movement.
This is a movement with very narrow views about who qualifies as American and who does not. Just last week, President Trump went on a hateful tirade attacking atheists and the nonreligious community. However, the brunt of Trump’s most virulent rhetoric has always been directed at immigrants.
Thankfully, the Supreme Court refused today to bend to Trump and his extremist supporters. Its decision in Trump v. Barbara reaffirmed what we already knew: The 14th Amendment means exactly what it says when it declares, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States…”
While today’s decision won’t put an end to White Christian Nationalists’ unhinged rhetoric against all those they believe to be un-American, it does demonstrate that our democratic institutions are continuing to hold firm in support of at least some aspects of the rule of law.
