Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

Chicago — Attorney General Kwame Raoul today issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Barbara.

“Birthright citizenship was not a right solely created by amending the Constitution, as America’s tradition of birthright citizenship predates the 14th Amendment and the abolition of slavery in the United States. The notion that this decision wasn’t unanimous is disappointing, given the plain language of the 14th Amendment.

“As Justice Jackson wrote in her concurrence, the concept of birthright citizenship “was thus not that some new status should be created and conferred on freed Blacks. It was instead that freed Blacks already had a rightful claim to citizenship because they had been born on American soil. After all, the nation, from its founding, had ‘boldly proclaim[ed] that all men are born free and equal, and that consequently life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are inherent in every individual, vested inalienably by natural birthright.’ No ideal was more inherently American.”

“However, when birthright citizenship was finally enshrined in our Constitution, the text of the amendment was very clear. President Trump’s audacious attempt to rewrite citizenship was one of the first acts he took upon his return to the presidency. On day one, he made clear that this administration does not care about the language of the Constitution, and he has taken several other brazenly unconstitutional actions since. The very first lawsuit I filed against this administration challenged this executive order, and I am gratified by the court’s decision today.

“As someone born to an immigrant mother not yet naturalized at the time, the fight to preserve birthright citizenship has been a personal one. I am disappointed that this was not a unanimous ruling. This case doesn't require a complex interpretation of the Constitution; the language is plain.”