Birthright Citizenship Upheld in a Victory for Democracy

Following today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. Barbara which struck down the Trump administration’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, Dēmos President Taifa Smith Butler released the following statement: 
 
“The Trump administration’s failed attempt to undermine birthright citizenship was a brazen attack on a core tenet of democracy, making clear that all people born here deserve equal rights, protections, and opportunities.  
 

Today’s decision affirms the right of millions of Americans to representative government, political freedom, and civic participation. 

“Today’s ruling reaffirms what we have long known to be true under the 14th Amendment: that every person born or naturalized in the United States is a citizen. Any attempt to whittle away this constitutional protection would be detrimental to our ability to build a strong multiracial democracy. Today’s decision affirms the right of millions of Americans to representative government, political freedom, and civic participation. 
This administration and the white supremacists who support it want to control who belongs, who participates, and who is heard.

“It’s no coincidence that Trump’s attacks on birthright citizenship arrived amid efforts to weaken longstanding protections under the Voting Rights Act and attempts to make it harder for everyday Americans, especially people of color to vote. This is part of a broader, coordinated campaign to redefine power and dictate who has a voice in our democracy. This administration and the white supremacists who support it want to control who belongs, who participates, and who is heard. But we won’t let them.  
 
“Dēmos remains committed to fighting for a just, inclusive, multiracial democracy that enables every voice to be heard.”