The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled 6–3 to strike down President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ending automatic birthright citizenship.
The landmark decision firmly reinforces a 150-year-old constitutional precedent, confirming that nearly all children born on American soil are automatically U.S. citizens, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
The executive order, signed on the first day of President Trump’s second term, sought to deny automatic citizenship to babies born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants or those on temporary visas. Lower courts had already blocked the policy before it could take effect, and the High Court’s ruling permanently dismantles the directive.
The 6–3 Split: Who Voted How?
The decision brought together a unique coalition of justices. Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion and was joined by conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett alongside the court’s three liberal justices: Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred with the ultimate outcome but filed a separate opinion based on statutory grounds rather than constitutional ones. On the other side, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented.
Deciphering the 14th Amendment
At the absolute center of the legal battle was the text of the 14th Amendment, which was originally adopted in 1868 following the Civil War to secure citizenship for formerly enslaved people.
The amendment states:
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States…”
