The Diocese of Los Angeles is among a group of faith-based organizations opposing Trump v. Barbara a case U.S. Supreme Court justices are set to hear April 1, which seeks to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to parents who are either undocumented or who have temporary legal status.
“The Trump Administration’s unpatriotic policy strikes at the heart of the American dream while raising, as this government does in other ways, the specters of nativism and ethnic purity,” Bishop John Harvey Taylor told The Episcopal News. “Our diocese was proud to join in this brief and stand up for liberty and justice for all.”
President Donald Trump, on Jan. 20, 2025, his first day in office, signed Executive Order 14160, titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” which declared that individuals born in the United States are not U.S. citizens at birth if their parents lack sufficient legal status.
The diocese has joined an amicus brief in support of three families who filed a class action lawsuit challenging the order. The families, using pseudonyms, include Barbara, a Honduran asylum applicant whose child was due in October 2025. Another was Susan, a Taiwanese citizen in the country on a student visa whose daughter was born in April 2025. Her child’s passport application was in progress at the time of the lawsuit. The third is Mark, a Brazilian applicant for permanent residence whose son was born in March 2025 and initially received a U.S. passport.
The families allege “the Executive Order unlawfully strips their children of citizenship guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment” of the U.S. Constitution, according to Oyez, a website dedicated to making the Supreme Court accessible.
The lawsuit also seeks to preserve access to such citizenship-related benefits as Social Security, SNAP, and Medicaid. Trump’s order directed federal agencies not to recognize citizenship claims for children born after February 20, 2025, if the mother was unlawfully present in the U.S. and the father was neither a citizen nor a lawful permanent resident, or if the mother’s presence in the country was lawful but temporary and the father was not a citizen or a lawful permanent resident.
The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles comprises 133 congregations, 30 schools, a half-dozen housing and other service organizations, and about 50,000 members in six counties in southern California and the central coast. Episcopalians’ baptismal covenant centers “the dignity of every human being,” especially when unjust power scapegoats or marginalizes people.
In addition to the L.A. diocese, other groups joining the amicus brief in support of the respondents include: the Alliance of Baptists; American Jewish Committee; Central Conference of American Rabbis; Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice; Convención Bautista Hispania De Texas; Council on American-Islamic Relations; the Episcopal Diocese of New York; Episcopal Divinity School; Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, Minnesota; Muslim Public Affairs Council.