Unconstitutional ‘Disaster Looms’ After Supreme Court’s Birthright Citizenship Ruling

Interview with Dulce Guzmán, executive director of Alianza Americas, conducted by Scott Harris

July 2, 2025

birthright citizenship, federal injunctions — Screenshot

The U.S. Supreme Court’s June 27 6 to 3 ruling on President Trump’s executive order eliminating the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship, did not rule on the constitutionality of birthright citizenship itself. Instead, the high court reviewed Trump administration’s request to partially halt nationwide injunctions blocking Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship.

In their ruling, the six extremist justices blocked federal district judges from issuing sweeping injunctions that shield everyone in the country from a president’s policy that they deem illegal or unconstitutional. The court said federal judges can only grant relief or protections to individuals or groups who filed a specific lawsuit in their judicial district. This means that a president’s unconstitutional policies will be imposed in some areas of the country, while being blocked in others—creating a chaotic and confusing patchwork of rules. One door left open in the ruling appears to allow class action lawsuits to be filed in order to block President Trump’s illegal policies on a national level.

In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “The Court’s decision is nothing less than an open invitation for the Government to bypass the Constitution.” Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Dulce Guzman, executive director of Alianza Americas, who discusses her group’s response to Supreme Court ruling and next steps in defending the U.S. Constitution from Trump regime authoritarian rule.

DULCE GUZMAN: It definitely is a complicated decision that left many people concerned and I think even more confused because as you just said, the case was centered around the constitutionality of birthright citizenship, which is clearly stated in the Constitution as a right. And what this administration did was argue before the Supreme Court saying, “I’m not arguing the constitutionality of this, but I want to challenge whether a single judge has the power to issue or block executive orders by the president.”

And what the Supreme Court said in their six to three decision was that a single judge does not have that power to do so, giving this current president — but really the presidency for years to come enormous power that we have just not seen before. And what they back this on is the Judiciary Act of 1789, where they mentioned that certain courts were given some powers but didn’t give them essentially this power. And I think what Justice Sotomayor and Justice Ketanji-Brown Jackson said in their dissent is very important because they really draw your attention to how this implicates not only a person’s right to birthright citizenship, but could put at risk other essential rights like the Second Amendment or First or others that guarantee critical rights to people in the U.S.

SCOTT HARRIS: Well Dulce, what’s your group Alianza Americas’ response? What kinds of things are you mobilizing to do to counter what the Supreme Court has done here, which has really taken the guardrails off of unconstitutional action by the Trump administration when it comes to birthright citizenship. But certainly that applies to past and future unconstitutional actions by the Trump regime.

DULCE GUZMAN: We want to make sure that families are first of all informed about what this means to understand that we need to be keeping informed on how this progresses in the 22 states as the injunction remains. And birth right citizenship will continue after the 30 days, regardless if there is a decision or not. And then trying to connect families to legal protection that can support them through this process and can make decisions that are best for the families. I also think that part of this decision, while the administration knew that it was likely to fail on the constitutionality of birthright citizenship, I think part of their goal was to challenge the narrative on who is and is not an American, not just based on where you’re born, but also your identity, your culture. And I think that that was part of their goal to advance the narrative on who does and does not belong.

So we continue to try to push that narrative to challenge it and say that America is a diverse country. It is made up of immigrants. The country that we are today is because of the contributions of people across the world that bring their traditions, cultures, practices to make America the country that it is. So part of our work is to continue challenging that by sharing the stories of immigrants that have helped make this country what it is and also the neighbors that benefit from living in communities as diverse as the ones that we have created.

SCOTT HARRIS: Well, I’ll say in closing, tell us a little bit about how our listeners can support immigrants who face mass militarized deportation, and then of course these Supreme Court decisions which have removed the guardrails from due process and other rules of law that are being violated on a daily basis by the Trump administration.

DULCE GUZMAN: I truly invite the listeners to continue paying attention and not look away while legal guardrails, as you just mentioned, Scott, are being torn down and dismantled left and right. And right there is still one tool that I think we have seen gets to this administration and that is public opinion. The mass marches that we saw on No Kings Day, the mass mobilizations in L.A., they’re all sending a message that we as a collective are rejecting this racist xenophobic and truly harmful executive that is trying to rule as a monarch. And we must all and unison reject this authoritarianism that we are witnessing and we need to continue calling it what it is. So as much as you can continue to mobilize and hit the streets, documents all of the aggressive human rights violations that are being conducted by these ICE agents, all of that makes a difference. We need to continue to show the real harm that is happening and at the same time, send messages of hope, care and belonging to our immigrant neighbors.

For more information, visit the Alianza Americas at alianzaamericas.org.

Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with Dulce Guzmán (16:02) and see more articles and opinion pieces in the related links section of this page. For periodic updates on the Trump authoritarian playbook, subscribe here to our Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine Substack newsletter to get updates to our “Hey AmeriKKKa, It’s Not Normal” compilation.

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