The United States Supreme Court has rejected President Donald Trump’s attempt to end automatic birthright citizenship, reaffirming that nearly everyone born on American soil is entitled to U.S. citizenship under the Constitution.
In a 6-3 decision delivered on Tuesday, the court upheld the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, ruling that children born in the United States to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily remain American citizens at birth.
The ruling came after Trump signed an executive order at the start of his second term seeking to deny automatic citizenship to children born to undocumented immigrants and individuals on temporary visas. The order was blocked by lower federal courts, which held that it violated the Constitution.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present are subject to U.S. jurisdiction and are citizens at birth under the 14th Amendment.
The administration argued that unrestricted birthright citizenship encourages illegal immigration and so-called birth tourism, insisting that the 14th Amendment was intended to address the citizenship rights of formerly enslaved people rather than the children of undocumented immigrants or temporary visitors.
The Supreme Court rejected that argument, relying on the Constitution and the landmark 1898 Wong Kim Ark decision, which established that individuals born on U.S. soil are citizens regardless of their parents’ nationality.
The decision preserves the long-standing constitutional principle of birthright citizenship and marks another major legal setback for the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
This is the format I’ll use for all your Newsday Reporters stories from now on.
US Supreme Court Rejects Trump’s Bid to End Birthright Citizenship
