The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected President Donald Trump’s landmark attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, ruling that children born on American soil remain entitled to citizenship under the Constitution.
In a highly anticipated decision delivered on the final day of its term, the court voted 6–3 to uphold the long-standing interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, which grants citizenship to nearly everyone born in the United States.
The ruling blocks Trump’s executive order issued on the first day of his second term, which sought to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the US to parents who were in the country illegally or were present on temporary visas.
Several lower courts had previously halted the policy, ruling that it conflicted with constitutional protections established under the 14th Amendment, which states that people born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens.
Writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts affirmed that children born in the country to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present in the US qualify for citizenship at birth.
“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 stated.
The case attracted widespread attention after Trump became the first sitting US president to personally attend Supreme Court arguments on the issue when he appeared during oral hearings in April.
The decision represents a major legal setback for Trump’s immigration agenda and preserves one of the most established principles of American citizenship law.
