The US Supreme Court on Tuesday, 30 June struck down President Donald Trump's executive order that sought to end automatic birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants and many temporary visa holders. The court ruled, citing the Fourteenth Amendment, that such children are citizens at birth under the US Constitution.

What the Court Ruled

The Supreme Court held that children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present in the country are 'subject to the jurisdiction' of the United States and therefore entitled to citizenship at birth. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, stated: 'Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community.'

Roberts further wrote: 'The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to every free-born person in this land. We keep that promise today.' The court grounded its decision in the historical origins of the Citizenship Clause, the common law, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and longstanding constitutional precedent.

What Trump's Order Had Sought

The executive order, signed on 20 January 2025 — the first day of Trump's second term — directed federal agencies not to recognise US citizenship for children born in the country if their mothers were either unlawfully present or present only temporarily on visas, and the father was neither a US citizen nor a lawful permanent resident. The White House had argued that the Fourteenth Amendment 'has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.'

The order was never implemented, having been blocked by multiple legal challenges that resulted in nationwide injunctions before it could take effect.

Political and Legal Reactions

Democratic lawmakers broadly welcomed the ruling. The Congressional Tri-Caucus said: 'Today's decision affirms a fundamental constitutional principle that has defined our nation for generations: every child born in the United States is a citizen of the United States.' The caucus added that the ruling 'serves as a reminder that he cannot override the Constitution or deny people the rights it guarantees with a stroke of a pen.'

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who helped lead a multistate legal challenge against the order, said the decision 'affirms a foundational tenet of American democracy: that every child born in this country, no matter their background, is equal under the law and can pursue the American Dream.'

Former White House adviser Ajay Bhutoria called the ruling 'a historic victory for justice, the US Constitution, and the American Dream,' adding that it 'reaffirms the foundational promise that has made our nation a beacon of freedom and opportunity for two and a half centuries.'

The Constitutional Backdrop

Birthright citizenship is rooted in the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, adopted in 1868 following the Civil War. The clause provides that all persons born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to its jurisdiction, are citizens. For more than a century, this provision has been widely understood to guarantee citizenship to nearly everyone born on US soil — a principle the Supreme Court has now reaffirmed against a direct executive challenge.

The ruling marks a significant constitutional setback for the Trump administration's immigration agenda, and legal experts say it forecloses any unilateral executive action on birthright citizenship without a constitutional amendment.