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In a landmark appointment that brings together decades of expertise in human rights, language advocacy, and academic scholarship, Irish President Catherine Connolly has named seven new members to the country’s Council of State, a constitutional advisory body that supports the president in fulfilling their official duties. Among the appointees are two prominent figures from Northern Ireland: celebrated Irish language activist Linda Ervine and leading human rights law academic Colin Harvey, whose selections mark a notable recognition of cross-border contributions to Irish public life.

Linda Ervine’s journey to the Council of State is rooted in a lifelong mission to expand access to the Irish language in historically unionist communities. Born into a working-class Protestant family in east Belfast, Ervine has broken new ground throughout her career: she currently serves as manager of the first Irish language centre ever established in a Northern Irish loyalist area, and is the founder of Scoil na Seolta, Ireland’s first integrated school that delivers all instruction through the Irish language. Her trailblazing work has earned widespread acclaim and a string of honours in recent years: she received an MBE in 2021 for her contributions to Irish language promotion, an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) in 2023, induction as a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2024, an honorary degree from Trinity College Dublin in June 2025, and a second honorary degree from the Open University just last October.

Colin Harvey, Ervine’s fellow appointee from Northern Ireland, brings decades of specialized experience in human rights law and policy to the council. A Professor of Human Rights Law at QUB’s School of Law, Harvey currently holds roles as a Commissioner with the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and a member of the Scientific Committee of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency. He previously completed two terms as a commissioner with the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and also served on the Northern Ireland Higher Education Council, building a track record of public service spanning both jurisdictions on the island of Ireland.

The five additional new appointees bring deep expertise across law, equality studies, and academic leadership to the advisory body. Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, a leading international law and human rights scholar, holds a professorship in law at QUB and has held visiting appointments at globally renowned institutions including Harvard Law School, Yale University, Princeton University, and the Geneva Academy in Switzerland. Kathleen Lynch, an emerita Professor of Equality Studies at University College Dublin (UCD), is a sociologist with a background in education and previously served as a member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. Conor O’Mahony, Professor of Law and Dean of the School of Law at University College Cork, centers his research and teaching on constitutional law and children’s rights. Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, a former president of the University of Galway, hails from the same county as President Connolly. Donncha O’Connell, an Established Professor of Law at the University of Galway, has served two terms as a Commissioner of the Law Reform Commission, was a member of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland, and previously sat on the board of the Legal Aid Board.

Established under the Irish constitution, the Council of State holds a key advisory role in Ireland’s system of government. The body is called on to provide guidance to the president when requested on a range of constitutional matters, most notably reviewing whether draft legislation should be referred to the Supreme Court for a formal assessment of its compliance with the Irish constitution. Membership of the council is divided into three categories: current office holders, including the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Chief Justice, and presiding officers of both houses of the Oireachtas (Irish parliament); former office holders, including all past presidents, taoisigh, and Chief Justices; and a cohort of up to seven members directly appointed by the sitting president to serve their term. The Constitution explicitly outlines scenarios in which the president is required to consult the council before taking official action, cementing its role as a core component of Ireland’s democratic governance framework.

The U.S. Supreme Court has opened oral arguments in one of the most consequential constitutional immigration cases of recent years, challenging the century-long American tradition of birthright citizenship. The case centers on an executive order signed by former President Donald Trump on the first day of his second term, which seeks to roll back the longstanding policy that grants automatic U.S. citizenship to nearly all people born on American soil.

The policy at the heart of the legal fight is rooted in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, ratified in the years following the Civil War. Framed around the centuries-old legal principle of jus soli, or “right of soil,” the amendment explicitly states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” When it was adopted, its core purpose was to guarantee full citizenship to formerly enslaved people, who had long been denied legal personhood in the U.S.

The scope of this constitutional guarantee was cemented by a landmark 1898 Supreme Court ruling, United States v. Wong Kim Ark. In that case, Wong Kim Ark, a man born in the U.S. to Chinese immigrant parents who were not U.S. citizens, was denied reentry to the country after a trip abroad. The nation’s highest court ruled that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to every person born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ immigration or citizenship status. To this day, only narrow exceptions to the policy exist: for example, children born to foreign diplomats stationed in the U.S. do not receive automatic citizenship.

While birthright citizenship has been a cornerstone of American law for over 150 years, the policy is far from the global norm. Only around 36 countries worldwide, nearly all located in North, Central, and South America, offer unconditional automatic birthright citizenship. The vast majority of the world’s nations follow the opposing principle of jus sanguinis, or “right of blood,” which ties a child’s citizenship to the citizenship of their parents, rather than their place of birth. None of the 27 member states of the European Union grant automatic, unconditional citizenship to children born on their territory to non-citizen parents. Many nations across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa have similar policies.

A growing number of countries have adopted mixed frameworks that blend elements of both principles. Australia, for example, maintained unconditional birthright citizenship until 1986, when it changed rules to require that at least one parent be an Australian citizen or permanent resident for a child to receive citizenship at birth. In a recent shift toward expanded access, Germany updated its own citizenship laws in 2024. For decades, the country relied exclusively on jus sanguinis, granting citizenship by birth only to children with at least one German parent. The 2024 reform allows children born in Germany to non-German parents to receive automatic citizenship if one parent has been a legal permanent resident in the country for at least five years. German officials justified the liberalization by noting research showing that children with migration backgrounds see improved educational outcomes when they receive citizenship early in life.

The Trump administration’s legal argument for restricting birthright citizenship hinges on a narrow interpretation of one phrase in the 14th Amendment: “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Administration lawyers argue that this clause excludes children born to parents living in the U.S. without legal authorization, giving the federal government the power to deny them citizenship at birth.

The executive order has already faced extensive legal challenges in lower courts, which have repeatedly paused implementation of the policy and ruled against the administration. The current case originated in New Hampshire, where a U.S. District Court judge ruled that Trump’s order “likely violates” both the U.S. Constitution and existing federal law. Trump has confirmed he will attend the Supreme Court’s oral arguments for the high-profile case, drawing additional attention to the legal fight that could reshape decades of U.S. immigration and citizenship policy.