President Donald Trump, on Tuesday, lost in his bid to end birthright citizenship.
The apex court in the United States (U.S.) – the Supreme Court – struck down Trump’s executive order seeking to stop guarantee of citizenship to virtually everyone born in the U.S.
U.S., known as God’s Own Country, will mark its 250th Independence Anniversary on July 4.
Trump issued the executive order on January 20, 2025, shortly after he was sworn into office for a second term.
It provided that babies who are born in the U.S. to parents who are in the North American country either illegally or temporarily are not automatically entitled to citizenship.
In a decision by Chief Justice John Roberts, on Tuesday, in Trump v. Barbara, the justices agreed with the challengers, as well as all of the lower courts around the country that have considered the issue, that Trump’s order cannot be reconciled with the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which confers citizenship on anyone “born … in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
Writing for the majority, Roberts emphasised that the “children born of parents unlawfully or temporarily present in the United States” “satisfy both elements of the Citizenship Clause.” “Under the Constitution,” he concluded, “they are citizens at birth.”
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Samuel Alito called the ruling both “one of the most important decisions in the history of the Court” and “a serious mistake.” “Careful analysis of the text of the Fourteenth Amendment and the process that led to its adoption,” Alito argued, “shows that it does not degrade the concept of United States citizenship in this way. Instead,” he contended, “the Fourteenth Amendment confers citizenship on only those children who, at birth, owe allegiance solely to this country”.
Although Trump’s order was slated to go into effect 30 days after he signed it last year, it never did. Instead, several federal judges across the U.S. prohibited the Trump administration from enforcing the order while challenges to it moved forward in court.
Faced with the prospect that Trump’s order could be on hold indefinitely, the Trump administration came to the Supreme Court last spring, asking the justices to weigh in on whether the lower courts can issue “universal” or “nationwide” injunctions – orders that bar the enforcement of laws or policies anywhere in the country. By a vote of 6-3, in Trump v. CASA, the court ruled that they cannot.
After the Supreme Court’s decision prohibiting universal injunctions, cases challenging the merits of Trump’s order continued in the lower courts.
On July 10, a federal judge in New Hampshire issued a preliminary injunction that blocked the government from enforcing the order against a class of babies born after February 20, 2025, who are or would be denied U.S. citizenship by the order. U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante concluded “that the Executive Order likely ‘contradicts the text of the Fourteenth Amendment and the century-old untouched precedent that interprets it.’”
The Trump administration then appealed to the Supreme Court on September 26, asking it to review Laplante’s ruling without waiting for a federal appeals court to weigh in. The justices granted the government’s request on December 5, and the case was argued on April 1.
