U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, along with Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio-04), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has led an amicus brief to the Supreme Court regarding birthright citizenship. The brief urges the court to uphold the Fourteenth Amendment by not granting citizenship to children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully present.
The Supreme Court's decision to review Trump v. Barbara follows a cert-stage brief previously led by Sen. Cruz.
Excerpts from the amicus brief state: “The Executive Order at issue here properly ensures that rule is followed within the executive branch, but the lower court nonetheless enjoined the Executive Order. This Court should reverse.”
Another section notes: “United States law was the same: in 1855, Congress enacted a law dictating that ‘persons heretofore born, or hereafter to be born, out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, whose fathers were or shall be at the time of their birth citizens of the United States, shall be deemed and considered and are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States,’ except for ‘persons whose fathers never resided in the United States.’”
The brief also asserts: “For all these reasons, as this Court held over a century ago, the touchstone for birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment is total allegiance to the United States, rather than merely being subject to its laws or some subset thereof.”
Senator Cruz has been reelected multiple times. In 2024 he defeated Colin Allred with 53.1% of votes compared to Allred’s 44.6%. In previous elections in 2018 and 2012 he also secured victories against Beto O'Rourke and Paul Sadler respectively.
