Just-In; US Supreme Court rejects Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship

The Supreme Court of the United States has rejected President Donald Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, ruling that children born in the United States remain entitled to automatic citizenship regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

In a 6–3 decision delivered on the final day of its current term, the court upheld the long-standing interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, rejecting Trump’s executive order that sought to deny automatic citizenship to children born to parents living in the United States illegally or on temporary visas.

Trump signed the executive order on the first day of his second term in office, arguing that birthright citizenship should not apply to children whose parents were not lawfully or permanently present in the country.

Lower federal courts had previously blocked the order, ruling that the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees citizenship to nearly everyone born on American soil.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts affirmed that position.

> “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, Trump personally attended oral arguments before the Supreme Court in April. He remained for the presentation by Solicitor General John Sauer but left before arguments by American Civil Liberties Union attorney Cecillia Wang, who defended birthright citizenship.

The administration had argued that unrestricted birthright citizenship encourages illegal immigration and so-called “birth tourism,” where foreign nationals travel to the United States to give birth so their children can obtain American citizenship.

It also contended that the Fourteenth Amendment—adopted after the American Civil War—was intended to protect the citizenship rights of formerly enslaved people rather than children born to undocumented migrants or temporary visitors.

The court, however, declined to adopt that interpretation.

The ruling is consistent with the Supreme Court’s landmark 1898 decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which established that a child born in the United States to Chinese immigrant parents was entitled to U.S. citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment.

The decision marks another major legal setback for Trump’s administration, following earlier court rulings that struck down most of his global tariffs and blocked his attempt to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve.