US Supreme Court Rules Against Trump's Move to Overturn Birthright Citizenship
Supreme Court blocks Trump bid to end birthright citizenship.
The U.S. Supreme Court has decisively rejected President Donald Trump’s effort to revoke birthright citizenship, marking a major setback for his administration’s broader immigration crackdown. In a 6-3 ruling issued Tuesday, the nation’s highest court upheld a lower court decision blocking an executive order that sought to deny citizenship to children born on U.S. soil if neither parent is a citizen or lawful permanent resident.
Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion, grounding the decision firmly in the text and history of the 14th Amendment. He emphasized that the amendment, ratified in 1868 to guarantee equal protection to formerly enslaved people, extends citizenship to “every free-born person in this land.” Roberts wrote that citizenship constitutes “the right to have rights” and enables full participation in the political community, a promise the Framers intended to be inclusive rather than restrictive.
The dissenting justices—Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch—argued against the broad interpretation of the 14th Amendment, while Justices Amy Coney Barrett and the three liberal members of the court joined Roberts in the majority. The ruling reinforces the longstanding legal precedent established by United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), which affirmed that nearly all individuals born in the United States are citizens regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
President Trump had framed his executive order as a measure to curb what he described as “birth tourism,” claiming on social media that the practice allowed visitors to secure permanent residency for themselves and their families. During oral arguments, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that thousands of foreigners from “potentially hostile nations” were exploiting the policy to gain footholds in the country. However, the Court found no constitutional basis for the administration’s narrow reading of the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the 14th Amendment.
Following the verdict, Trump posted on Truth Social that the decision was “too bad” for America and asserted that Congress could easily pass legislation to end birthright citizenship. Legal experts note that such legislative action faces steep hurdles, particularly with midterm elections approaching in November and Democrats poised to gain influence in Congress. For now, the constitutional guarantee remains intact, preserving automatic citizenship for children born in the United States except in rare circumstances involving diplomatic immunity or foreign military forces.