Birth on American Soil Has Almost Always Guaranteed Citizenship. The Supreme Court Just Rejected Trump’s Effort To Change That.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship for nearly all children born on American soil, rejecting the Trump administration’s effort to narrow the scope of the 14th Amendment.
In a 6-3 decision, the justices struck down Trump’s executive order seeking to deny automatic U.S. citizenship to children born in the United States whose parents are in the country illegally or temporarily on visas. The ruling preserves a constitutional principle that has existed for more than 125 years and is expected to affect hundreds of thousands of births annually.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said the text and history of the Constitution leave little room for the government’s interpretation of the Citizenship Clause. “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights, to freely participate in our political community,” Roberts wrote. “We keep that promise today.”
The decision reaffirmed the court’s landmark 1898 ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which established that nearly everyone born on U.S. soil is a citizen under the 14th Amendment, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
“Not surprisingly, then, in the 128 years since, we have repeatedly understood the rule of Wong Kim Ark to guarantee citizenship to all children born in the United States and subject to its power,” Roberts wrote. “We see no reason to depart from that view today.”
The administration had argued that the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” excludes children born to undocumented immigrants and some temporary visa holders, contending that the 14th Amendment’s protections should apply only to those whose parents have permanent legal ties to the United States.
Roberts rejected that argument, describing it as unsupported by history. “There is scant evidence” for the administration’s “dramatically revisionist view” of the Citizenship Clause, he wrote.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed with the outcome but wrote separately, arguing that the executive order conflicted with federal law codifying birthright citizenship rather than directly violating the Constitution. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented.
The ruling represents one of the most significant immigration decisions in decades and marks another legal setback for Trump after the Supreme Court earlier this year invalidated major administration initiatives on tariffs and the dismissal of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
Trump responded within hours on his Truth Social platform, calling the decision “too bad for our Country” while urging Congress to pass legislation restricting birthright citizenship.
“No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary!” Trump wrote. “Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship.”
The case stemmed from a class-action lawsuit brought by parents whose U.S.-born children faced the possibility of losing citizenship under Trump’s executive order. The order had threatened to affect as many as 250,000 babies born in the United States each year, while potentially forcing millions of families to prove their newborns’ citizenship eligibility.
The Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War, states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
