Supreme Court blocks Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship

The Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship, ruling 6-3 against President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the ancient constitutional right through executive order.

Birthright citizenship dates back to the Reconstruction period. Under the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868 to guarantee citizenship and equal protection for the children of former slaves, anyone born in the United States “subject to its jurisdiction” is considered a citizen.

Trump issued the executive order, titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” just hours after taking the oath of office again in early 2025 — and the administration was almost immediately sued in response. Defending the executive order before the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Dr. Sawyer Argue That noncitizens and their children are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States, because their allegiance lies with a foreign power.

that An estimated 250,000 children They are born on US soil to non-citizen parents every year. The birthright citizenship ban would not have gone into effect retroactively, but would have applied to anyone born 30 days after Trump’s executive order.

Even conservative justices were skeptical of the administration’s argument. After Sawyer claimed that the Fourteenth Amendment needed to be reconsidered because we live in a different world than Reconstruction, Justice Neil Gorsuch responded, “It’s the same Constitution.” However, the fact that such a basic constitutional right was up for debate shows how influential Trump’s nationalist vision has been on American politics.

Gorsuch eventually caved, and not only signed Justice Clarence Thomas’ dissenting opinion, but also wrote one of his own. Justice Samuel Alito also dissented.