Birthright citizenship: Supreme Court rejects Trump crackdown
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has ruled President Donald Trump’s 2025 order on birthright citizenship, is unconstitutional, rejecting his executive order declaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.
The legal battle was one that played out before the president’s eyes when he became the first sitting president to attend arguments at the nation’s highest court in April.
But the court has sided against his crackdown, a decision he had surmised was coming.
The justices relied on a long-settled understanding of the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, and more recent federal laws in ruling that anyone born in the country, with very limited exceptions, is a citizen.
The Republican president's restrictions had been blocked by several lower courts and had not taken effect anywhere in the U.S.
File: Demonstrators outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 1, 2026 as justices hear arguments about automatic citizenship for children born to parents who are in the country unlawfully or on temporary visas. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty I
Read the Supreme Court ruling
How the Supreme Court justices voted on birthright citizenship
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to uphold birthright citizenship, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing the majority opinion. He was joined by the Court's three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, as well as conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed with the majority but wrote in a separate opinion that his judgment was based on federal law rather than the Constitution.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch all dissented.
Chief Justice Roberts’ majority opinion upholding birthright citizenship
What they're saying:
"Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land,’" Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, citing congressional debate over the amendment. "We keep that promise today."
Trump reacts to Supreme Court birthright citizenship decision
President Trump took to his Truth Social to share his thoughts on the Supreme Court birthright citizenship decision.
President Trump via Truth Social
Birthright citizenship case
The backstory:
On Trump’s first day of his second term in office, he signed an order that attempted to end the birthright citizenship guarantee extended in the Constitution.
His order upended more than 125 years of understanding that the 14th Amendment confers citizenship on everyone born on American soil. Narrow exceptions were in place for the children of foreign diplomats and those born to a foreign occupying force.
The first sentence of the 14th Amendment was enshrined soon after the Civil War, and was intended to ensure that Black people, including those who had been enslaved, had citizenship.
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During arguments in April, both conservative and liberal justices questioned the order’s legality in a momentous case that was magnified by Trump’s unprecedented attendance in the courtroom.
The case framed another test of Trump’s assertions of executive power that defy long-standing precedent for a court with a conservative majority and a robust view of presidential power that has largely ruled in his favor. In the notable exceptions when the court has not, Trump has responded with starkly personal criticisms of the justices.
Dig deeper:
The order was part of his Republican administration’s broad crackdown on immigration, and it faced multiple challenges before its spring hearing in front of the Supreme Court.
It was the first Trump immigration-related policy to reach the court for a final ruling, and has not taken effect anywhere in the country in the meantime.
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The Source: Information in this article was taken from The Supreme Court opinion in Trump v. Barbara. Background information was taken from The Associated Press and previous FOX Television Station reporting. This story was reported from Detroit.