A Friday ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, coupled with an executive order by President Donald Trump, has created doubt about the future of American citizenship for Alaskans who are the children of immigrants.
In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that U.S. District Court judges cannot issue nationwide preliminary injunctions.
In January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring that the federal government would end birthright citizenship — the awarding of American citizenship to every person born in the United States — for the children of non-citizen immigrants.
The new Supreme Court decision has significant implications for Alaska in particular, because it is not among the states that have legal challenges against Trump’s executive order.
Since 1898, the Fourteenth Amendment has been interpreted by courts as offering birthright citizenship to the children of all American residents, regardless of immigration status.
Trump’s order would change the federal government’s interpretation. It declares that citizenship would be limited to the children of citizens and lawful permanent residents, which would exclude refugees, and other people in the United States temporarily, as well as undocumented immigrants.
That change has been blocked nationwide since January by numerous district court judges.
Friday’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court means that those judges can no longer block the order nationwide; they can only block it in states whose district courts are considering lawsuits that challenge the Trump order.
As of Friday, 22 states have legal challenges against the Trump order.
Twenty-eight states, including Alaska, have not. In those states, the Trump administration can start, in 30 days, to begin implementing the executive order, the court said.
The court did not rule on the constitutionality of the Trump administration’s executive order, which could be overturned at a later date.
Neither the office of Gov. Mike Dunleavy nor Attorney General Treg Taylor answered emailed questions asking whether they intend to file a lawsuit in order to protect newborn Alaskans’ citizenship.
Mara Kimmel, the executive director of the Alaska chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said by email that her organization “anticipates this decision could have devastating impacts in Alaska and we are monitoring this very closely as we determine a path forward to protect Alaskan families.”
Meghan Barker, communications and engagement director for the ACLU of Alaska, said that the ACLU nationally has already filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to represent people nationwide, including Alaskans.
“We’re closely following the situation and litigation to ensure that no Alaskans lose their citizenship,” she said.