US Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship in Sharp Rebuke to President Donald Trump

June 30 () — United States President Donald Trump suffered a major legal setback on Tuesday after the United States Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the U.S. Constitution guarantees automatic birthright citizenship to virtually all children born on American soil, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

The landmark decision struck down an executive order Trump signed on the first day of his second term seeking to deny U.S. citizenship to children born in the country if their parents entered the United States illegally or were living and working there on temporary visas.

Writing for the six-member majority, Chief Justice John Roberts held that the order violated the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, reaffirming more than a century of constitutional precedent that citizenship is determined primarily by place of birth rather than the immigration status of a child’s parents.

Roberts noted that the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment intentionally adopted broad language following the American Civil War to guarantee citizenship to all persons born in the United States.

The amendment states that, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

The ruling effectively ends Trump’s attempt to redefine birthright citizenship through executive action.

His order had directed federal agencies to deny citizenship documents, including U.S. passports and other official records, to children born in the United States unless at least one parent was an American citizen or lawful permanent resident.

The policy, however, never took effect. Every federal judge who reviewed the order before it reached the Supreme Court blocked its implementation, with one court describing the measure as “blatantly unconstitutional.”

Trump had argued that the Citizenship Clause was intended solely to protect enslaved people formerly after the Civil War and was never designed to extend automatic citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants or temporary visa holders.

That interpretation was rejected by lower courts and decisively dismissed by the Supreme Court.

In reaching its decision, the court relied heavily on its 1898 ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark. In that case, Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrant parents, was initially denied re-entry into the United States after a visit to China because authorities claimed he was not an American citizen.

The Supreme Court ruled in his favour, establishing that nearly everyone born on U.S. soil automatically acquires American citizenship at birth.

Chief Justice Roberts said the Wong Kim Ark decision has remained settled constitutional law for well over a century, surviving periods of intense anti-immigration sentiment and continuing to shape American citizenship policy.

Even during the Second World War, children born in the United States to Japanese nationals detained as enemy aliens were recognised as American citizens because they were born on U.S. soil. Congress later codified that constitutional understanding in federal law.

The court also reaffirmed that only a few narrow exceptions exist to birthright citizenship, principally children born to foreign diplomats who are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction.

During arguments before the court, civil rights organisations and immigrant advocacy groups maintained that the Fourteenth Amendment deliberately protects children from being disadvantaged because of their parents’ immigration status.

They argued that the Constitution confers citizenship on the child at birth, irrespective of the legal circumstances of the parents.

The decision drew dissent from Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, who disagreed with the majority’s interpretation of the Constitution.

Tuesday’s judgment is regarded as one of the most consequential constitutional rulings of Trump’s second presidency.

It preserves the long-established doctrine of birthright citizenship, reinforces the protections of the Fourteenth Amendment, and underscores that any attempt to alter who qualifies for American citizenship would require constitutional or congressional action rather than a presidential executive order.