By Ghazali Ibrahim
The United States Supreme Court has reaffirmed the constitutional right to birthright citizenship, handing a major legal defeat to President Donald Trump by striking down his administration’s attempt to end automatic citizenship for children born on American soil to undocumented immigrants and some temporary residents.
In a 6-3 decision delivered on Tuesday, the nation’s highest court ruled that the 14th Amendment guarantees U.S. citizenship to nearly everyone born in the country, rejecting Trump’s 2025 executive order that sought to narrow the long-established interpretation of the Constitution.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, said the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment clearly protects those born in the United States, except in a few narrow circumstances such as children of foreign diplomats.
The court reaffirmed that the Constitution not an executive order determines who is entitled to citizenship by birth.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the majority, although he wrote separately to note that while Congress could potentially legislate in this area, the president could not alter the Constitution through executive action alone. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the ruling.
Trump signed the executive order shortly after returning to office in 2025, arguing that children born to people living in the United States illegally or temporarily were not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States as required by the 14th Amendment. The policy immediately faced multiple lawsuits and was blocked by lower federal courts before reaching the Supreme Court.
Legal experts said the ruling preserves more than a century of constitutional precedent established by the Supreme Court’s 1898 decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which has long been interpreted to guarantee citizenship to almost all children born on U.S. soil regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
The decision represents one of the most significant setbacks to Trump’s immigration agenda during his second term. Estimates presented during the litigation suggested that restricting birthright citizenship could have affected hundreds of thousands of children born in the United States each year.
Immigration advocates welcomed the judgment as a victory for constitutional rights and for families across the United States, while supporters of the former executive order criticized the ruling and called for Congress to revisit the issue.
The ruling effectively restores certainty over one of the most fundamental principles of American citizenship, reaffirming that birthright citizenship remains protected under the U.S. Constitution unless amended through the constitutional process.
