On April 1, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Trump v. Barbara, in any other case generally known as the birthright-citizenship case. It stems from a January 2025 Trump government order that makes an attempt to redefine the 14th Amendment of the Constitution in a manner that now not grants computerized citizenship to anybody born contained in the United States. It was blocked by district courts throughout America, however the Supreme Court will make the final word name.
The American Civl Liberties Union has performed a pivotal function within the authorized pushback to Trump’s government order, they usually’ve teamed up with Bruce Springsteen to create a 30-second video that pairs his 1984 hit “Born in the U.S.A.” with photos of Americans of all backgrounds whose lives will likely be dramatically impacted by the choice.
The ACLU are rolling out the video on Morning Joe, however you possibly can take a look at an unique sneak preview under. We additionally spoke with Anthony D. Romero, the manager director of the American Civil Liberties Union, the place he explains how they pulled Springsteen into the trigger, why this trigger is so essential, and the place the battle goes from right here.
What sparked the concept for this video?
I bought the concept for this video throughout an interview with Katie Couric two days after President Trump’s inauguration. I used to be answering a query from Katie about one in every of President Trump’s government orders on day one, wherein he had the audacity to attempt to finish birthright citizenship — as if a president might rewrite the 14th Amendment on his personal. This was amongst his first acts as president, and what it represented was breathtaking.
Birthright citizenship is a sacred floor for these of us within the civil rights neighborhood. It’s how our nation addressed America’s authentic sin of chattel slavery, making residents of the kids of enslaved folks. It’s additionally how a nation of immigrants ensured we’d all be equal — out of many one.
As this concept got here to me throughout my interview with Katie Couric, I started to sing the refrain of “Born in the U.S.A.” When I bought again to my workplace after that interview, I started the method of bringing this concept to life.
To be clear, we had already achieved loads of pondering round this concern and the way we’d combat the Trump administration previous to the election. We studied Project 2025 and knew that birthright citizenship can be on the high of the Trump administration’s agenda to redefine who belongs in our nation. We ready for the worst. We honed our authorized theories.
Then, a few days earlier than the election, I spoke with somebody near the incoming Trump administration and realized that birthright was going to be one in every of their first strikes. I got here again to the workplace and advised our attorneys, “We have to get ready. This is really going to happen.” We started to arrange our shoppers so we’d be able to file our go well with if the president dared to undo birthright citizenship.
On the day he was sworn in, Trump signed an government order focusing on birthright citizenship. We filed the primary lawsuit simply two hours later. On a federal vacation. We have been prepared as a result of we understood that defending birthright can be an epic battle.
Beyond submitting the primary go well with, we additionally knew that we must battle for the hearts and minds of the American folks. We’d have to talk immediately with the general public to remind them that birthright citizenship is among the many bedrock ideas of this nation.
We started brainstorming a marketing campaign to remind bizarre people what it actually means to be American. What folks really feel of their hearts once they put on their T-shirts with the American flag. When they get up for the nationwide anthem at baseball and soccer video games. When they collect with their communities on July 4, Memorial Day, Veterans Day. When, like me, they cling flags exterior their houses.
We realized that we wanted to confront this battle over what it means to be an American head-on. We weren’t going to cede the flag or let our opponents outline what it means to be a patriot. In the face of an administration that has repeatedly tried to sow division by pitting communities towards each other, we wished to be constructive. We wished to be patriotic. We wished to succeed in people who usually don’t hear from or take note of the ACLU.
“Born in the U.S.A.” is the proper track to seize what’s at stake on this Supreme Court case and the way birthright citizenship is integral to America. It’s a track that tells the story of a Vietnam veteran returning dwelling to an America he knew was neglecting its folks. The track calls on our nation to dwell as much as its beliefs. And once you take heed to it, it makes you are feeling proud to be an American. The brassy chorus of “Born in the U.S.A.” makes you need to get up straight and be ok with the nation you reside in, the communities you’re a part of, and pay honor to the values that really make America nice.
Decades later, the track nonetheless displays the wrestle to carry onto the issues that make us proud to be Americans immediately. Even when you put the lyrics apart, the track principally makes you are feeling good. It makes you are feeling proud. It makes you are feeling daring. And that’s what our advert marketing campaign captures. Birthright citizenship is what makes America nice, and we should be proud to defend it. It’s a reminder that all of us have a task to play in preventing for a nation that follows our democratic ideas.
Walk me by means of the method of pitching it to Springsteen’s camp.
Over the years, I had been in contact with Jon Landau, who’s the person to the Boss.
In addition to my years as a fan of his music, I had been watching and listening to Bruce Springsteen’s brave feedback about what was taking place within the nation. Bruce’s onstage remarks throughout his concert events — especially in Minneapolis this January — have been wonderful. Bruce Springsteen was talking fact to energy when the titans of business have been caving and sniveling. Bruce Springsteen was standing as much as the president, whereas universities and regulation companies have been being cudgeled and cowed. I knew Bruce Springsteen was changing into more and more agitated and that he was able to combat again similar to we have been.
After the Couric interview final January, I requested my workforce to discover how we might use the track to create an advert that may resonate with and provoke the general public to hitch our efforts to guard birthright citizenship.
We got here up with a number of ideas that I shared with my good pal Richard Lovett at CAA, earlier than any pitch to Jon Landau. Richard instantly noticed our imaginative and prescient and was extremely supportive. With Richard’s help, we contacted Landau, who then threw the change to Sony Music and Sony Music Publishing to start the method in earnest.
What was the response?
Given his fame as a formidable linebacker for the Boss, when Jon expressed enthusiasm, I knew we have been virtually there. If Sony have been to get somewhat queasy about utilizing an iconic track like “Born in the U.S.A.” because the centerpiece of an advert marketing campaign a few politically charged concern, I figured Jon and Bruce would come to our assist. And as soon as Landau confirmed enthusiasm, Brian Monaco [Sony/ATV Music Publishing executive] turned our champion and jumped on the cellphone with me instantly. The stars aligned, as a result of everybody knew the place Bruce Springsteen stood and understood the gravity of the second.
That turned out to be the simple half. The exhausting half was getting our case earlier than the Supreme Court. There have been further lawsuits difficult Trump’s government order filed by different organizations, together with governors and state attorneys normal. Some of these different lawsuits have been shifting quicker in different courts. By the time that we acquired the greenlight from Sony and Springsteen’s camp, it was not clear which birthright citizenship case the Supreme Court would determine to contemplate.
We ended up having to attend far longer than we initially anticipated. In reality, it was not till December 2025 that the Supreme Court introduced they might take up our case and solely our case. One of probably the most consequential instances earlier than the courtroom in 100 years can be argued by ACLU Legal Director Cecillia Wang. But it wasn’t till this February that we knew when the courtroom would hear our argument.
The stars had aligned. We had the case. We had the rights to the track. We might seize the second — however we wanted to scramble. A yr had handed since we filed our birthright citizenship lawsuit, and now we wanted to supply a TV spot that was worthy of this track, this second, and this essential case.
With the time strain, we turned to our buddies at CAA and requested for assist getting us entry to world-class administrators. We wished to supply a Super Bowl-caliber advert, however we had by no means achieved that earlier than. Fortunately, CAA was in a position to introduce us to a number of top-notch companies. My ACLU colleagues vetted a number of companies. I interviewed the 2 finalists and chosen Anderson Wright: an up-and-coming, award-winning director from Stink Films in February. In partnership with the Stink Films workforce, we sprinted to scout places throughout Southern California, for a complete of 13 shoots spanning 5 days. We had a complete solid of over 115 people who appeared in our advert. The enhancing, the wardrobe, the sound mixing — after all — with a nationwide anthem like “Born in the U.S.A.” And the remainder, as they are saying, is historical past …
What does the video purpose to realize?
We wished viewers to see themselves and their neighbors as a part of the material of this nation — one that may not be doable with out birthright citizenship and the generations of Americans who’ve constructed this nation up. The advert turns on a regular basis moments right into a triumphant celebration of America — folks of all creeds, races, and backgrounds studying in school rooms, engaged on job websites, and celebrating household gatherings. Birthright citizenship is a part of all our tales, and we wished to remind the general public that President Trump doesn’t get to outline who belongs right here.
We need folks to really feel proud about being born in the usA. We need them to really feel that what’s on the road is the character of our nation. We need individuals who don’t take note of politics or the Supreme Court to take curiosity. And we would like supporters of Donald Trump to cease and give it some thought, and say, “Yeah, that is going too far. We’re all born in the usA. We’re all Americans. We’re all pleased with that. And we’re pleased with our neighbors who have been born right here
What misunderstandings about birthright citizenship do you hope it corrects?
At a time when the Trump administration is trampling our Constitution, focusing on activists, killing good people like Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and demonizing people who find themselves immigrants, we would like this advert that may air nationwide to be a rallying cry. We need our win on the U.S. Supreme Court to be the inflection level. When we win this case and cease President Trump’s government order, we would like that to be the second when the pendulum stops and swings within the different route. We need this nationwide marketing campaign to create an setting the place everybody stops, appears to be like, and listens to what’s happening. We need birthright citizenship to turn into a family phrase, and for folk to really feel invested within the end result of our case. Because it issues. Quite a bit.
Ending birthright citizenship would rip the material of this nation. It would shred the pillar of the Constitution enshrined within the 14th Amendment. On a sensible stage, it might upend the lives of lots of of hundreds of individuals and create chaos for generations of households. We hope that when folks see our advert marketing campaign, they’re reminded that each one in every of us make this nation what it’s, and that the video can function a rallying name to unite us all.
What makes “Born in the U.S.A.” such an ideal track for the marketing campaign?
“Born in the U.S.A.” is likely one of the nice American anthems. Everyone is aware of it. Everyone can sing it. It evokes sturdy emotions. When you take heed to the lyrics, it tells the story of what it means to be deserted by your nation — and it’s a merciless story too many immigrants live proper now.
The track was launched in 1984 as veterans have been coming dwelling from Vietnam, many feeling disillusioned and remoted in their very own dwelling. I used to be in school, in New Jersey no much less, when it got here out. I had gone to highschool in New Jersey, and Bruce Springsteen was our man. Our hero. Our Boss — fairly actually.
I bear in mind enjoying that track time and again in my school dorm room on my report participant. I bear in mind introducing my roommate from Kolkata to the track. He’s now an American citizen. His children have been born in the usA. And if Trump had his manner, these children (now my godchildren) wouldn’t be American residents. That’s only one instance of how this government order is deeply private for thousands and thousands of individuals — even American residents like me. While immediately’s political context is totally different than the Nineteen Eighties when it first got here out, the resonance of the track’s message has endured.
Bruce Springsteen, himself, has stated that “Born in the U.S.A.” is each his hottest and most misunderstood track. You have a darkish historical past juxtaposed with a patriotic melody, and this complexity is strictly what makes it a quintessentially American anthem. “Born in the U.S.A.” completely captures the stakes of our birthright-citizenship case. The peril and promise of the second are embodied on this track. It is ideal for this case, for this second.
When he first wrote it, Springsteen wished to wake folks up. That’s what we need to do immediately. We are being examined as a nation to guard our neighbors, our households, and our youngsters. There’s no extra consequential check for the soul of our nation than birthright citizenship. Our video invitations audiences to listen to the beloved melody of “Born in the U.S.A.” whereas taking within the visible tapestry of Americans from all backgrounds rejoicing of their lives as Americans.
My hope is that our marketing campaign resonates with folks from all walks of life and serves as a rallying cry for all of us to guard birthright citizenship.
From my studying of the Constitution, the 14th Amendment fairly clearly grants citizenship to everybody born in America. How assured are you {that a} majority of justices will see it this manner?
The Constitution is evident on this: The president doesn’t get to determine who’s a citizen. That isn’t the way it works. And each single courtroom that has checked out this government order to this point has stated the identical factor and blocked it. That isn’t an accident. We have greater than a century of Supreme Court precedent backing this up. Changing course now would break with each the Constitution and the way in which the courts have utilized it for generations. It is a part of the inspiration of this nation, and we anticipate the Justices to acknowledge that. I’m certain we’re going to win this case. It’s too essential, and I’m assured that the justices are going to see it the way in which we do.
In the off-chance that the Supreme Court someway guidelines towards birthright citizenship, what’s the following step on this battle?
We’re assured that we’ll win this case, however we aren’t letting our guard down. In the unlikely probability that we don’t prevail; now we have developed plans for additional litigation and advocacy. We will cry for someday, after which we will even get to work to revive what we misplaced. The ACLU isn’t going anyplace. We have been round for 106 years, and if it takes us one other 106 years to revive birthright citizenship, if we lose, I do know we’ll by no means let up. I is likely to be useless, however the combat will proceed and keep alive. For so long as it takes. Whatever it takes. We will combat this at each stage, each step of the way in which. That’s what the ACLU does.
I would like people to grasp what shedding would imply. Hundreds of hundreds of infants born on American soil yearly, with no citizenship, no authorized identification, no actual protections. Over time, that may imply making a everlasting underclass that grows with each era. That end result doesn’t mirror our American values. It’s not who we’re or need to be as a rustic.
