Washington (CNN)A federal judge this week ordered the State Department to recognize the birthright citizenship of a married same-sex couple’s baby daughter who was born in Canada and grant her a US passport.
The ruling issued Wednesday found that the department’s refusal to grant Roee and Adiel Kiviti’s daughter, Kessem, a passport “contravenes the United States Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act … and the Administrative Procedure Act.”
“We are tremendously relieved that the court recognized what we always knew: that our daughter was a U.S. citizen by birth,” Roee and Adiel Kiviti said in a statement. “We are proud we taught our little girl to stand up for what’s right even before she could crawl. No child should be denied her rights because her parents are LGBT, and no family should have to endure the indignity we did.”
A State Department official told CNN Friday the department “is aware of the Court’s ruling and is reviewing the decision with the Department of Justice. We have no further comment at this time.”
