Attorney General Tong Statement on Supreme Court Decision Affirming Birthright Citizenship

06/30/2026

(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong released a statement following the decision in the U.S. Supreme Court today to affirm birthright citizenship.

Attorney General Tong will be joined by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport for a remote press conference to discuss the decision at 1 p.m. today. Media may register for the Zoom link here: https://njoag.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_2onFnEyfQPyfIY4_rbAPrQ

“The Supreme Court did its job today—they read the words of the Constitution. They did the first thing any court is supposed to do any time, any inquiry. When the words and the text are clear and unambiguous, as it is with the Fourteenth Amendment and citizenship, that is the end of the inquiry.

The Fourteenth Amendment says what it means, and it means what it says—if you are born on American soil, you are an American. Ronald Reagan was right— our Constitution spells out the promise that anyone can be an American. This promise is a hope and aspiration that defines us, makes us who we are, and distinguishes us above all others.

Donald Trump’s executive order wasn’t just wildly wrong on the law. It was an audacious attempt to override that American dream with the cruel legal fantasies of the most radical anti-immigrant fringe. It was an effort to deny the existence and legitimacy of my own family, and so many Americans who share my story.

Today is not just a legal victory. Today is a second ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, on the 250th anniversary of our nation’s birth, by which we affirm as a people the essential character of our nation built by the sacrifice, ambition, and unyielding labor of immigrant hands.

Still, so much of Donald Trump’s hateful war on American families rages on. Across our country, masked paramilitary enforcers are occupying our communities, ripping children from their parents, killing protestors, and inflicting needless terror and chaos. Government functions are being co-opted for surveillance and weaponized to deny basic care and services. We are fighting back on every front to preserve the essential character of our nation. Today’s decision is a thunderous victory with more to come,” said Attorney General Tong.

On his first day in office in 2025, President Trump issued an executive order to end birthright citizenship for countless children born in the United States to immigrant parents, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Groups of states immediately filed two lawsuits challenging the order, one in the Western District of Washington and one, joined by Connecticut, in the District of Massachusetts. Attorney General Tong was at the Supreme Court for oral arguments on the legality of a nationwide injunction issued in challenge on May 15, 2025. The Supreme Court ultimately struck down the nationwide injunction and remanded to the district court to determine the necessary scope of an injunction. The states, including Connecticut, subsequently secured nationwide injunctions in both the district court and appellate courts, successfully blocking the executive order from ever taking effect.

The Supreme Court decision today comes in a separate challenge, Barbara v. Trump, brought by a class of children who would have lost citizenship under the order. Attorney General Tong joined a coalition of 24 attorneys general filing an amicus brief in that challenge

For Attorney General Tong, this fight is personal. Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1973, he became the first United States citizen in his immediate family by right of his birth on American soil. He was the first Asian American elected to state office in Connecticut history, and the first Chinese American to be elected Attorney General in the nation.

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