Expert: Courts Likely to Strike Down Trump's Citizenship Order

Robert Brodsky, Bart Jones, Newsday, Jan. 20, 2025

"Arguably the most controversial order he signed Monday, with potentially the largest impact, would seek to end "birthright citizenship" for those born to immigrants who entered the country illegally — a concept guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The order is expected to face fierce legal challenges in federal court as to its constitutionality. Some conservative scholars have argued that a phrase in the 14th amendment — that citizenship must be granted to those "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States — would exclude the born-in-America children of those who are not living in the country legally. But that is not the consensus view of most constitutional scholars, and although the Supreme Court has not explicitly decided whether such children are entitled to birthright citizenship, similar cases have ruled those children are automatically citizens, said retired Cornell Law School professor Stephen W. Yale-Loehr, who co-authored the treatise "Immigration Law & Procedure." "Of all of the expected immigration orders," he said of Trump’s birthright citizenship order, "that one is the most likely to be struck down by the courts.”…