US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship in loss for Trump
The US Supreme Court ruled to uphold birthright citizenship, dealing a legal setback to President Donald Trump's efforts to restrict automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to non-citizen parents.
Background
Birthright citizenship is the automatic grant of US citizenship to anyone born on American soil, regardless of their parents' immigration status. It has been guaranteed since 1868 by the 14th Amendment ("All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens"). President Donald Trump, who returned to office in January 2025, ordered an end to the policy via executive action, arguing it encouraged illegal immigration and "birth tourism." This led to lawsuits from Democratic-led states and immigrant-rights groups. The Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing for the majority, affirmed that the 14th Amendment's plain text and 150 years of precedent protect birthright citizenship and that Congress — not the president — has sole authority to change it. The decision is a major ideological and legal defeat for Trump's hardline immigration agenda.