The US Supreme Court has rejected President Donald Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, reaffirming that nearly everyone born on American soil is entitled to US citizenship under the Constitution.
In a closely watched ruling delivered on the final day of its term, the court voted 6-3 to uphold the long-standing constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, dealing another legal setback to the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.
The dispute stemmed from an executive order Trump signed on the first day of his second term, which sought to deny automatic US citizenship to children born to parents living in the country illegally or those in the United States on temporary visas.
However, lower courts blocked the order, ruling that the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to almost everyone born within the United States.
The Supreme Court agreed with those decisions in a majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts.
“Children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause,” Roberts wrote.
In a rare move for a sitting US president, Trump personally attended oral arguments at the Supreme Court in April during the hearing on the birthright citizenship case.
He remained in the courtroom while Solicitor General John Sauer presented the administration’s arguments but left before American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney Cecillia Wang presented the case defending birthright citizenship.
Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship formed part of his broader immigration policy, which includes plans to deport millions of undocumented migrants.
During the hearing, Sauer argued that unrestricted birthright citizenship encourages illegal immigration and “birth tourism,” where foreign nationals travel to the United States specifically to give birth so their children can obtain American citizenship.
The 14th Amendment states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
The provision excludes only individuals who are not subject to US jurisdiction, such as the children of foreign diplomats.
The Trump administration argued that the amendment, adopted after the 1861–1865 Civil War, was intended to guarantee citizenship rights for formerly enslaved people and not for children of undocumented migrants or temporary visitors.
Under Trump’s executive order, anyone in the United States illegally or on a temporary visa would not be considered “subject to the jurisdiction” of the country and therefore would not qualify for automatic citizenship.
The Supreme Court, however, relied on its landmark 1898 ruling involving Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco in 1873 to Chinese immigrant parents.
After travelling to China, Wong Kim Ark was denied re-entry into the United States in 1895 under the Chinese Exclusion Acts. The Supreme Court later ruled that he was an American citizen because he was born on US soil.
Tuesday’s ruling marks another significant legal defeat for Trump during the current Supreme Court term. Earlier this year, the justices struck down most of his global tariff measures, and on Monday they also blocked his attempt to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from office.
The decision preserves birthright citizenship as it has existed for more than a century, maintaining constitutional protections for children born in the United States regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
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