SABA-NJ has joined a nationwide coalition of nearly 50 bar organizations to defend the fundamental constitutional guarantee of citizenship for those born in the United States. On February 25, 2026, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) and 48 of its affiliates and national associates from across the country filed an amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in Trump v. Barbara, No. 25-365. Oral argument is scheduled for April 1, 2026.

The Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution promises every person equal treatment under the law. Its plain text includes an equal claim of citizenship to all persons born in the United States, regardless of the status or circumstances of their parents.

Executive Order 14160 upends that promise. It refuses to recognize the birthright citizenship of any child born in the United States to a mother who is lawfully present on a temporary basis, including those on work or student visas, and a father who is neither a U.S. citizen nor a lawful permanent resident.

In our amicus brief, SABA-NJ and the NAPABA coalition underscore the historical significance of United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), the role of Asian Americans in shaping our nation’s foundational immigration and civil rights precedents, and the disproportionate harms that EO 14160, if upheld, would visit upon Asian American communities.

We take the position that the federal government distorts the holding of Wong Kim Ark and creates a legally and historically faulty analogy that Chinese migrants in the late 19th century were the functional equivalents to today’s lawful permanent residents (i.e., green card holders). The amicus brief also addresses the congressional debates over the Fourteenth Amendment, which explicitly contemplated that children of Chinese migrants would be covered under the amendment.