Barbara v. Donald J. Trump
On June 27, 2025, immigrants rights’ advocates filed a new nationwide class-action lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship. The lawsuit was in response to the June 27, 2025 Supreme Court ruling that potentially opened the door for partial enforcement of the executive order.
This case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of New Hampshire, ACLU of Maine, ACLU of Massachusetts, Legal Defense Fund, Asian Law Caucus, and Democracy Defenders Fund on behalf of a proposed class of babies subject to the executive order, and their parents.
The same group of organizations filed a similar suit in January 2025 in the same court, on behalf of groups with members whose babies born on U.S. soil will be denied citizenship under the order, including New Hampshire Indonesian Community Support, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and Make the Road New York. The court issued a ruling protecting members of those organizations.
Three other lawsuits originally obtained nationwide injunctions protecting everyone subject to the order, but the Supreme Court’s June 27 decision narrowed those injunctions, potentially leaving some children without protection.
This new case seeks protection for all families in the country, filling the gaps that may be left by the existing litigation.
Birthright citizenship is the principle that every baby born in the United States is a U.S. citizen. The Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantees the citizenship of all children born in the United States (with the extremely narrow exception of children of foreign diplomats) regardless of race, color, or ancestry. Specifically, it states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
This lawsuit charges the Trump administration with flouting the Constitution, congressional intent, and longstanding Supreme Court precedent, and it is national in scope.
On July 10, 2025, the Court preliminarily blocked President Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship and provisionally certified a nationwide class that protects the citizenship rights of all children born on U.S. soil.
