The U.S. Supreme Court has dealt President Donald Trump a major legal setback, ruling 6-3 against his attempt to limit birthright citizenship in the United States. The landmark decision struck down Trump’s executive order, reaffirming that children born on U.S. soil to parents who are undocumented or in the country temporarily remain American citizens under the 14th Amendment.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said the executive order conflicted with the Constitution’s Citizenship Clause and decades of legal precedent, including the landmark 1898 United States v. Wong Kim Ark ruling. Roberts was joined by the court’s liberal justices, while conservative Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh also sided with the majority, although Kavanaugh argued the order violated federal law rather than the Constitution itself.
Trump’s order, signed at the start of his second term, sought to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. if their parents were undocumented immigrants or held only temporary visas. The administration argued the policy was necessary to curb illegal immigration, but lower federal courts blocked its implementation before the Supreme Court’s final ruling.
The decision preserves the long-standing interpretation of birthright citizenship, which affects an estimated 250,000 children born each year in the United States. Immigration advocates and civil rights groups welcomed the ruling as a victory for constitutional protections, while Trump criticized the judgment and said his administration would continue pursuing legislative options through Congress.
