The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, rejecting President Donald Trump’s attempt to upend more than a century of legal consensus that virtually everyone born on American soil is a U.S. citizen.
The court’s ruling, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, invalidates an executive order Trump issued on the first day of his second term seeking to deny citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants and of people studying, working, or visiting the U.S. on time-limited visas.
The ruling Tuesday is the second major blow the conservative-leaning high court has dealt this year against a pillar of Trump’s policy agenda. In February, the justices knocked out the centerpiece of his trade policy by overturning sweeping tariffs Trump imposed on imports from around the globe.
The Court’s Reasoning
Five justices — Roberts, Justice Amy Coney Barrett and the three liberals — agreed that the Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship. Justice Brett Kavanaugh disagreed with that conclusion but said Trump’s executive order is invalid because it violates a federal statute.
Roberts rejected arguments that the Constitution’s grant of citizenship applies only to those whose parents are “domiciled” in the U.S., owing their allegiance to the U.S.
“If Congress intended to limit American citizenship to the children of those domiciled in the United States, nothing in the succinct language of the Citizenship Clause conveyed that design,” Roberts wrote.
The Dissents
Justice Clarence Thomas, in a dissent joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch, adopted some of Trump’s rhetoric. The court has recognized “a constitutional right to citizenship for the children of all foreign-born tourists and illegal aliens,” Thomas wrote.
Justice Samuel Alito, in a solo dissent, also referred to “birth tourists” but emphasized that even without a constitutional guarantee of citizenship, immigrant children could win relief from Congress. “Many of those who have grown up here now have a strong moral claim to be allowed to remain, but that is a matter that the Fourteenth Amendment, when properly interpreted, leaves to Congress,” Alito wrote.
Trump’s Response
Trump appeared to have been bracing for a loss since April, when he took the extraordinary step of showing up in person for the court’s oral arguments — the first known instance of a sitting president turning up to observe an argument.
In a rambling Truth Social post last month, Trump said he expected a loss at the high court “because our Court System is RIGGED, no different than our Political System is RIGGED, and the people of our Country know it, and that is why I got overwhelmingly elected President, in Record Numbers, and will FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!”
The Background
Critics of Trump’s plan said birthright citizenship has been a bedrock principle of American life for almost 130 years, and abandoning that approach would create a bevy of practical problems as officials struggled to determine the legal status of the parents of every child born in the U.S.
Trump and his allies argued that awarding birthright citizenship encourages illegal immigration because migrants know their children will have the right to live in the U.S. indefinitely. Republican lawmakers have also said the practice poses national security concerns by promoting “birth tourism.”
While Trump’s January 2025 order declared that U.S. citizenship would only be denied for births taking place 30 days or more after it went into effect, lawyers said any ruling upholding the proposal could create legal uncertainty for many people born in the U.S. and long assumed to hold American citizenship.
The Bottom Line
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected President Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, upholding the constitutional guarantee that virtually everyone born on American soil is a U.S. citizen. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, joined by four other justices. Two justices dissented, arguing the Constitution does not require birthright citizenship. The ruling is the second major blow to Trump’s policy agenda from the high court this year.
