Professor Rachel Rosenbloom Co-Authors Amicus Brief Challenging Executive Order on Birthright Citizenship

05.13.2025 — Professor Rachel Rosenbloom, an expert in immigration law and policy, has joined Professor Gerald L. Neuman of Harvard Law School and Professor Kristin Collins of Boston University School of Law in submitting an amicus brief to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in a case challenging the legality of President Trump’s Executive Order No. 14,160. In the brief, they argue that the Executive Order, which purports to deny birthright citizenship to children born in the United States lacking a US citizen or lawful permanent resident parent, not only conflicts with the Constitution but violates the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). 

Drawing on historical precedent and legislative history, the three experts of US citizenship and immigration law emphasize that the traditional broad interpretation of territorial birthright citizenship, guaranteed in the Fourteenth Amendment, was intentionally codified in the 1940 Nationality Act and in Section 301(a) of the 1952 INA, 8 USC section 1401. The experts conclude that the INA offers a clear, independent legal ground to rule the Executive Order unlawful.