The Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship – the guarantee of citizenship to virtually everyone born in the United States. On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued the executive order shortly after he was sworn into office for a second term. It provided that children who are born in the United States to parents who are in this country either undocumented or temporarily are not automatically entitled to citizenship. Although the executive order was supposed to go into effect 30 days after it was signed, it never did. Instead, several federal judges across the United States prohibited the Trump administration from enforcing the order while challenges to it moved forward in court.
In its recent decision, the Supreme Court 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, Chief Justice Roberts emphasized 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.”