The Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship in a 6-3 decision on June 30, 2026, affirming that children born in the United States to undocumented or temporarily present parents are automatically U.S. citizens under the Constitution.
Writing for the majority in the case Trump v. Barbara, Chief Justice John Roberts emphasized that children born to parents unlawfully or temporarily in the United States satisfy the requirements of the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, which grants citizenship to anyone “born … in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Roberts concluded: “Under the Constitution, they are citizens at birth.”
Trump signed the executive order on January 20, 2025, his first day in office. The order, titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” sought to deny automatic citizenship to babies born to parents residing in the country illegally or on temporary visas, targeting what the administration argued was a misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment. Although the order was set to take effect 30 days after signing, federal judges across the country blocked its enforcement while legal challenges moved forward.
The Supreme Court’s majority opinion grounded its reasoning in centuries of precedent. Roberts traced the principle of birthright citizenship back to early English common law and noted that it crossed the Atlantic with American colonists. In 1868, he wrote, the 14th Amendment was adopted specifically to repudiate the Supreme Court’s 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which had denied citizenship protections to enslaved people and their descendants. “The framers of the amendment intended to permanently enshrine the existing understanding of birthright citizenship,” Roberts stated. “A child born on American soil and subject to American law was made an American citizen.”
The Court reaffirmed the 1898 precedent United States v. Wong Kim Ark, in which the justices ruled that Wong, born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrant parents, was a U.S. citizen despite his parents’ foreign nationality. “What the Court held in Wong Kim Ark was simple,” Roberts emphasized: “the Citizenship Clause incorporated the common law and granted citizenship to nearly all children born in the United States.” He added that in the 128 years since that decision, the Court has “repeatedly understood the rule to guarantee citizenship to all children born in the United States and subject to its power.”
Roberts rejected the Trump administration’s argument that the Citizenship Clause should be interpreted to require a child’s parents to be “domiciled” in the United States—a concept the government contended hinged on permanent residence and allegiance. “There is scant evidence for this dramatically revisionist view,” the Chief Justice wrote, and even if Congress had intended such a limit, “nothing in the succinct language of the Citizenship Clause conveyed that design.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed that Trump’s order was invalid but disagreed with the majority’s reasoning. Rather than resting on the Constitution, Kavanaugh argued the order violates a federal statute providing that children born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens. He suggested Congress could amend that law or pass new legislation establishing exceptions to birthright citizenship, but noted that it had not yet done so.
In dissent, Justice Samuel Alito called the ruling “one of the most important decisions in the history of the Court” and “a serious mistake.” He argued that careful historical analysis of the 14th Amendment shows it confers citizenship only on children who owe allegiance solely to the United States. Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch in a separate brief dissent, also disputed the majority’s historical account.
Sources
- SCOTUSblog — Detailed analysis of the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision striking down Trump’s executive order, with Chief Justice Roberts’ majority opinion reasoning and the various dissents.
- BBC — Reporting on the 6-3 Supreme Court ruling upholding birthright citizenship in a blow to Trump.
- Al Jazeera — Coverage of the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision affirming that nearly all infants born on U.S. soil automatically become citizens.
- The White House — Official text of Executive Order 14160, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” signed January 20, 2025.
- AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association) — Documentation that Trump issued Executive Order 14160 on January 20, 2025, denying citizenship to certain persons.
- Congress.gov — Congressional research on the Citizenship Clause and the case Trump v. Barbara, confirming the January 20, 2025 order date.
