In a closely divided 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to deny birthright citizenship to children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants, reaffirming the constitutional protections enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The ruling reinforces more than 150 years of legal precedent established since the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868, preserving the principle that nearly all individuals born on U.S. soil are citizens at birth.
Chief Justice John Roberts stated that children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants fall within the scope of the Constitution’s Citizenship Clause.”Those children are thus subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. They satisfy both elements of the Citizenship Clause: they are ‘born . . . in the United States’ and ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’ Under the Constitution, they are citizens at birth,” Roberts wrote.
Roberts was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred in part with the judgment while also dissenting in part. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented.The decision marks a significant constitutional setback for the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict birthright citizenship through executive action and reaffirms the long-standing interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.