Maureen Groppe

Barbara is a pseudonym for one of the parents who are challenging Trump's executive order on behalf of a child.

This particular person, this mother, she came to the U.S.

from Honduras.

She is seeking asylum in the U.S.

because of gang activity in Honduras.

And while that application is pending, she said she and her family have become part of the community in New Hampshire.

And she is the lead name on this class action lawsuit that involves many other parents as well.

The 14th Amendment is one of three amendments that were adopted after the Civil War.

And this particular one, it overturned the Supreme Court's infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision on

that African Americans could not be citizens.

So the citizenship clause made clear that formerly enslaved black people and their children are citizens, but the clause is not limited to the status of black people.

And in fact, it uses the words all persons when it says all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States.

They argue that Trump's executive order violates that citizenship clause that I just read and that it also violates a previous Supreme Court decision about that clause.

And they say it violates a federal citizenship law passed in the 1950s that includes similar language.

Basically, they say that this citizenship clause has long been misinterpreted.

They focus on the phrase subject to the jurisdiction thereof.

And they say that term means more than just if you're here, you have to follow the laws.

They say it implies this level of allegiance that people who are in this country temporarily or who entered illegally, they can't meet that higher bar of allegiance so their children should not become automatic citizens.

There is not, and that was a point that Chief Justice John Roberts made.

He started off by asking the Justice Department attorney, the Solicitor General,