US Catholic bishops call on SCOTUS to shut down Trump birthright citizenship order and protect ‘human dignity’

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops filed an argument in opposition to President Donald Trump’s order against birthright citizenship, calling it “immoral.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has taken up an appeal from the Trump administration of a lower court ruling siding with a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

‘It is a question of whether the law will affirm or deny the equal worth of those born within our common community — whether the law will protect the human dignity of all God’s children.’

The bishops filed an amicus brief with the court to argue that shutting down birthright citizenship violated the “God-given human dignity” of children of migrants wanting to come to the U.S.

“Children do nothing wrong by being born in the United States,” the bishops wrote in the brief. “Yet, this executive order renders them stateless. Depriving an innocent child of his citizenship based upon his parents’ immigration status would be an especially outrageous punishment — one that this court has rejected as punishment even for people who have been proven guilty.”

Opponents of birthright citizenship say the policy depends on a misreading of the 14th Amendment, which goes back to the Civil War era, and argue that ending it would eliminate much of the motivation for illegal immigration.

The bishops addressed this argument in their brief.

“At its core, this case is not solely a question about citizenship status or the Fourteenth Amendment,” they wrote. “It is a question of whether the law will affirm or deny the equal worth of those born within our common community — whether the law will protect the human dignity of all God’s children.”

They went on to appeal to the court by citing a biblical parable.

“Migrants often flee war and persecution seeking a better life for their families,” they added. “It is critical that we treat our suffering neighbors not with indifference, apathy, or bias, but instead with the same type of mercy as depicted in the story of the Good Samaritan, whose love transcended the most strident ethnic division of that day.”

Some online noted that the counsel of record listed for the brief is Matthew Martens, a Baptist who says he voted for former President Joe Biden.

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Despite an invite from Vice President JD Vance to the pope for the 250th U.S. celebration, the Vatican said Pope Leo would not be visiting the U.S. this year.

Six of the nine justices on the Supreme Court are Catholic.

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