President Donald Trump has signed a number of executive orders his first day of office — including one which seeks to strip certain newborns of their U.S. citizenship, effectively going against an established constitutional right. The move has proven controversial and has already provoked fear among many expectant couples within the United States. But, can Trump — or any other U.S. president — simply end a constitutional right? Aiming to end the constitutional right to birthright citizenship Anyone born in the United States automatically becomes a citizen, including children born to someone in the country illegally or in the U.S. on a tourist or student visa. It’s a right enshrined in the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War to assure citizenship for all, including Black people. Trump’s executive order suggests that the amendment has been wrongly interpreted, and it would go into effect in 30 days — meaning it would not be retroactive. Birthright citizenship — a right guaranteed by the Constitution U.S. citizenship law is founded on two traditional principles: “jus soli,” or right of the soil (citizenship is acquired by birth location), and “jus sanguinis”, or right of the blood (citizenship is acquired through citizenship of the parents). Which is why birthright citizenship dictates that all babies born in the United States — or U.S. territories — is a U.S. citizen (with a very narrow exception for children of foreign diplomats) regardless of race, color, or ancestry. Additionally, the citizenship of children born on vessels in United States territorial waters or on the high seas has generally been determined by the citizenship of the parents — which is why the children of U.S. military members (who themselves are citizens) born abroad while their family is stationed are considered U.S. citizens upon birth. The 14th Amendment, Section 1 reads as follows: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, overturning the Dred Scott decision that denied Black Americans the rights and protections of U.S. citizens. Years later, in 1898, a 6-to-2 landmark decision of the Supreme Court in the United States v. Wong Kim Ark case confirmed that children born in the United States to immigrant parents were entitled to U.S. citizenship. This has been an undisturbed, continuous precedent if the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment. The 1898 United States v. Wong Kim Ark decision came to be after Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco in 1873 to Chinese citizens, was denied re-entry to the United States after a trip to China to visit his parents when he was 21 years old, on the grounds that he was not a U.S. Citizen. The Supreme Court ruled in his favor since he was born in the United States and his parents were not “employed by any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China.” Can Trump repeal part of the Constitution? Any changes made to the Constitution, does require an amendment. A president cannot simply repeal a section of the Constitution by signing an executive order nor can Congress repeal it by passing a new bill. Rather, amending the Constitution would require a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate, and also ratification by three-quarters of the states. The process is long and arduous, and almost never is successful. According to the National Constitution Center: “Changing the actual words of the Constitution does take an amendment, as does actually deleting, or repealing, an amendment. Including the first 10 amendments, the Bill of Rights, which were ratified in 1789, the Senate historian estimates that approximately 11,699 amendment changes have been proposed in Congress through 2016. Only one amendment, the 18th Amendment that established Prohibition, was later repealed by the states.” Lawsuit against the administration has already been filed The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have already sued the Trump administration following the executive order Monday, calling it “a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values.” The lawsuit charges the Trump administration with flouting the Constitution’s dictates, congressional intent, and longstanding Supreme Court precedent, the ACLU said. “Denying citizenship to U.S.-born children is not only unconstitutional — it’s also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values. Birthright citizenship is part of what makes the United States the strong and dynamic nation that it is. This order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the U.S. who are denied full rights as Americans. We will not let this attack on newborns and future generations of Americans go unchallenged. The Trump administration’s overreach is so egregious that we are confident we will ultimately prevail,” Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. Additionally, on Tuesday, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and the attorneys general of 17 other states, the District of Columbia and the City of San Francisco sued Trump in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, challenging the executive order ending birthright citizenship. “This is a war on American families waged by a President with zero respect for our Constitution. We have sued, and I have every confidence we will win. The 14th Amendment says what it means, and it means what it says—if you are born on American soil, you are an American. Period. Full stop,” Tong said.