– Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today, by a 6-3 vote, that President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to limit birthright citizenship is unconstitutional, reaffirming that virtually all children born on U.S. soil are U.S. citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment.
In a decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court held that the Citizenship Clause guarantees citizenship to people born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction. The ruling rejected the government’s restrictive interpretation of the phrase ‘subject to its jurisdiction,’ which sought to exclude the children of undocumented immigrants and those with temporary visas. The decision aligns with more than a century of case law, including the landmark 1898 case, United States v. Wong Kim Ark.
Trump signed the executive order on January 20, 2025, the first day of his second term. The order instructed federal agencies not to recognize the citizenship of certain newborns based on their parents' immigration status. Lower courts had unanimously blocked the order, and the Supreme Court's ruling ensures it will never take effect.
The majority emphasized the broad purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment after the Civil War: to extend citizenship to all those born on U.S. soil. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented, arguing for a stricter, originalist interpretation of the clause.
This outcome reinforces the idea that any change to birthright citizenship would require a constitutional amendment, not executive action. The decision maintains existing legal protections for hundreds of thousands of children born in the United States each year.