Today, the League of Women Voters, NAACP, and Equal Justice Society filed an amicus brief urging a federal court to invalidate a recent executive order issued by President Donald Trump seeking to revoke birthright citizenship for individuals born in the United States to undocumented persons or temporary legal residents.
Represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, this is the only amicus brief filed which explicitly centers racial justice. The filing emphasizes that birthright citizenship is not a matter of political debate or preference, but rather a right rooted in the purpose of the Reconstruction Amendments, which established and protects the full personhood and civil rights of Black Americans and other historically excluded communities.
The amicus brief also makes the case that the executive order would erode American democracy by diminishing the ability for Black Americans and other communities of color to meaningfully participate in democracy. The order would drastically reshape the electorate and reimpose a racial hierarchy previously abolished by the Reconstruction Amendments.
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