The US president has blasted the decision as “too bad” and vowed to work around it through new legislation
The US Supreme Court has struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship, declaring it unconstitutional.
Signed on January 20, 2025, the first day of Trump’s new term, the order directed federal agencies to deny citizenship to children born on US soil if neither parent is an American citizen or a lawful permanent resident. The policy never took effect after being blocked by a series of nationwide injunctions, with lower courts declaring it unconstitutional. The Trump administration subsequently asked the Supreme Court to rule on the issue.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the order violated the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, which states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
Chief Justice John Roberts was joined by fellow conservative Amy Coney Barrett and the court’s three liberal justices – Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson – in concluding that the order violated the 14th Amendment.
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed that the order should be struck down but argued that it violated a 1940 federal legislative act regulating the status of people born in the US rather than the Constitution itself.
The court’s three other conservative justices– Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch – issued dissenting opinions. Alito called the decision “a serious mistake” and argued that children born to illegal immigrants and other “aliens” should not automatically be considered subject to US jurisdiction if they also acquire their parents’ citizenship.
Thomas also described foreigners “temporarily visiting” the US, including as part of “birth tourism” practices, as “‘strangers’, not ‘subjects’.” Gorsuch expressed a similar opinion by stating that “what matters is whether [a child’s parents] made this place their home.”
Trump called the court’s decision “too bad for our country.” In a post on Truth Social, he said “we can easily make it up in Congress through legislation” and urged the lawmakers to start working on it “today” while promising his “complete and total support” to a potential new bill.
House Speaker Mike Johnson also told journalists he was “very disappointed” with the court’s decision, adding that it would lead to “serious challenges going forward and we’ll have to deal with that.” Johnson, a former constitutional lawyer, said that the 14th Amendment was abused by “birth tourists.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) welcomed the court’s decision, calling Trump’s order “disgraceful” and “clearly unlawful.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) praised the ruling for preventing what he described as Trump’s attempt to “steal citizenship” from people.
The Trump administration has sought to crack down on so-called birth tourism, in which foreign nationals allegedly travel to the US for the sole purpose of giving birth and securing citizenship for their children before returning home.
Earlier this month, the US State Department announced plans to revoke hundreds of visas and dismantle networks in Africa and Europe allegedly linked to the practice. Critics argue that birth tourism accounts for a small share of US births anyway, with estimates suggesting that such cases amount to less than 1% of all births recorded annually.
