A federal judge has ordered the State Department to issue a U.S. passport to the two-year-old daughter of a married gay couple. The parents were earlier told by the Trump administration that the child was ineligible for birthright citizenship.
U.S. District Judge Michael L. Brown issued a summary judgment declaring Simone Mize-Gregg a U.S. citizen since birth. The court also ordered the U.S. State Department to immediately issue her a passport.
Derek Mize and Jonathan Gregg, a married gay couple, are both U.S. citizens. Simone was born in July 2018 via a gestational surrogate in the United Kingdom. She was conceived using one father’s sperm and an anonymously donated egg.
The State Department denied Simone’s passport application, arguing that like children who were born out of wedlock, she was not eligible for automatic birthright citizenship and subject to additional steps for naturalization.
The judge ruled that the “biological reading” of U.S. immigration laws advanced in court by the State Department, which premised that both biological parents must be U.S. citizens to pass citizenship to their child, raised serious constitutional questions for same-sex couples who are left out by it.