The US Supreme Court has rejected President Donald Trump’s attempt to end automatic birthright citizenship, ruling that children born on American soil remain entitled to US citizenship regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
In a 6-3 decision delivered on the final day of its term, the court upheld the long-standing interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, which grants citizenship to nearly everyone born in the United States. The ruling marks another significant legal setback for Trump’s immigration agenda.
According to AFP, the case centred on an executive order Trump signed on the first day of his second term, seeking to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the United States to parents who were in the country illegally or on temporary visas.
Lower courts had previously blocked the order, finding it inconsistent with the Constitution. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the country and are therefore citizens at birth under the 14th Amendment.
Trump personally attended oral arguments before the Supreme Court in April, an unusual move for a sitting US president. His administration argued that unrestricted birthright citizenship encourages illegal immigration and so-called “birth tourism”, where foreign nationals travel to the United States primarily to give birth.
The administration also contended that the 14th Amendment, adopted after the American Civil War, was intended to guarantee citizenship for formerly enslaved people rather than the children of undocumented migrants or temporary visitors.
However, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the constitutional interpretation established in the landmark 1898 Wong Kim Ark case. In that ruling, the court held that a man born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrant parents was a US citizen by birth despite later immigration disputes.
The latest judgment reinforces that precedent and preserves the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship.
The decision is the third major defeat for Trump at the Supreme Court this term. Earlier this year, the justices struck down most of his global tariff measures and also blocked his attempt to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
