Supreme Court hears birthright case, holding equity, humanity in their hands

The formation of the United States was built upon the genocide of Native Americans. By driving them from their ancestral land, the immigrants coming from Europe founded their own nation at the expense of the people who were already living there. On January 20, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order with the intent of ending birthright citizenship. As an integral part of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, it was necessary for this order to be brought to the Supreme Court. If ruled in Trump’s favor, this action would have effects that shake the United States to its core. To understand why this is so pivotal for the law of the land, it is important to look at the reason this amendment came into place, and why birthright citizenship has been an inalienable right for over 100 years in the United States.

In 1865, the Civil War ended in the States, and the newly freed slaves reclaiming their autonomy was immediately met with resistance. The 13th and 14th Amendments were put in place to give African Americans freedom and citizenship, but this didn’t stop the fight against oppression for black people. Besides the violent atrocities like lynchings and sundown towns, an insidious effort was being put into place to remove the rights of a citizen from African Americans; the worst being the Grandfather Clause. This was meant to specifically target former slaves, because if their grandfathers were not able to vote, they were subject to strict tests, to render them unable to vote, with the tests being specifically designed to be intentionally misleading. However, if a citizen’s grandfather could vote, they were allowed to skip any of the extra requirements. Racism has always been central to efforts to restrict citizenship throughout history, and this instance is just one example of the war against civil rights.

In the context of ICE raids, deportations, and voter ID laws, the Trump administration is pushing an attack against immigrants and their rights in the United States. Citizenship, though the condition of it is supposed to grant basic human rights, is being given and restricted freely by the current administration. Trump’s gold card allows those who are wealthy to buy their way into citizenship while poor immigrants, even ones with citizenship, get harassed and deported based on often circumstantial evidence. This has even led to deaths of individuals completely uninvolved with this battle over immigrant citizenship like Alex Pretti and Renee Good. If this is how white people are being treated, then minority communities can only be suffering to an unimaginable degree. This is clear when looking at how ICE raids are more prominent in low income, racially diverse neighborhoods. The writing on the wall is clear: if you are not white in the United States, your human rights are to be earned, not given, under the Trump administration. The current Supreme Court debates are merely an extension of this rhetoric, attempting to overturn a codified amendment to align it with the new age of America. Unfortunately for Trump and supporters of this push to revise the Constitution, amendments are not easy to overturn. If the Supreme Court finds his executive order to be in violation of the 14th amendment, which it definitionally is, the process to change it would be a Herculean task. To overturn an amendment would require another amendment, which has only ever happened once, in the case of prohibition. This is because it requires a two thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. On top of that, even if they get their votes within the congressional houses, three quarters of the states must ratify the amendment as well for it to become the supreme law of the land. Unfortunately, if the Supreme Court decides that this executive order does not violate the 14th amendment, it means that people would no longer be inherently citizens by birth. The Court is currently hearing oral arguments on this very matter.

This would turn years of security from law in an instant, leaving newly born children without the rights that are supposed to define them as a human being. The only use of removing birthright citizenship is to create an outgroup of people who do not receive the same rights as those considered citizens, much like the serfdoms of 18th century Europe. While it is a mystery how this would affect how people become citizens, the Reconstruction era of America could be a blueprint. The government could use such a power as a way to restrict dissenters from expressing their beliefs, casting their votes, and abolish civil liberties. The fact that such an inherent set of rights would be able to be taken away in the blink of an eye makes the fact that it’s necessary to be a citizen to receive them come into question itself. If these truths are really self-evident, should they not apply to anyone, regardless of race, gender, and nationality, because it is the way people were meant to be treated? 

The point of the Constitution is to protect people from government overreach, and when an executive order is trying to circumvent these enumerated rights, it can be nothing but that overreach. Trump has pushed the envelope on the powers of the presidency, but a direct challenge of the Constitution is new even for him. Whether the Supreme Court decides that the power of the president is greater than that of the country’s founding documents, or reaffirms that the Constitution has a larger sway, this case will be a landmark in American history. Under a court where deferral to precedence has been less common, the Justice’s decisions will determine who controls the United States, or as Toni Morrison would say, decide who are the definers, and who are the defined.

by William Amel

Published April 27, 2026

Oshkosh West Index Volume 122 Issue VII