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Birthright citizenship blocked
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against President Donald Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship for all individuals born in the US, issuing a 6-3 decision that upheld a lower court finding that the order ran counter to the US Constitution.
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The ruling came after Trump signed an executive order on January 20, 2025 seeking to bar those born in the US to parents on temporary legal statuses or without documentation from automatically receiving US citizenship.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, traced birthright citizenship to English common law and the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868, and he said the Framers extended the promise to “every free-born person in this land,” adding, “We keep that promise today.”
Roberts also said in his 26-page opinion that “The trouble is that there is scant evidence for this dramatically revisionist view,” while the BBC reported the decision as a rejection of Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship for some people born in the United States.
Trump responded by calling the ruling “too bad for our country” and endorsing legislation to reinstate his proposed limits, as the BBC said the chances of Congress acting were slim.
Dissent and legal pushback
In dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas argued the majority’s account was “not historically accurate,” saying the 14th Amendment had been “repurposed for political projects,” and he wrote that the Court took “the extraordinary step of holding facially unconstitutional the President’s Order excluding from citizenship the children of foreign temporary visitors and illegal aliens.”
The AP News live updates also quoted Thomas’s position that “The Citizenship Clause was enacted for people who were born in this country and called it home,” and it described his dissent as rejecting the majority’s approach.
Chief Justice John Roberts told the court, “We break no new ground today,” as he read the majority opinion on the bench, and the BBC likewise described Roberts’ history lesson reaching back to English common law.
The BBC reported that the decision was closely decided, with only five of the court’s nine justices finding a constitutional guarantee for such a right, and it said Trump’s birthright citizenship revocation cut against more than 125 years of Supreme Court precedent.
The ACLU framed the outcome as stopping Trump from “rewrite the Constitution,” with ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero saying, “President Trump suffered a stunning loss on a signature order he signed on day one of his presidency,” and it said the majority opinion was authored by Chief Justice Roberts.
What happens next
Hours after the Supreme Court ruling, the Justice Department directed prosecutors to “prioritize the investigation and prosecution” of fraudulent “birth tourism” schemes, according to AP News, and it said the memo directed prosecutors to consider other laws including wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft.
“What to know about birthright citizenship ahead of Supreme Court's ruling The ruling is one of the most highly anticipated of the year”
The CNN live reporting also said the Justice Department sent a letter to all US attorneys directing them to prioritize investigations and prosecution of “birth tourism schemes,” and it described birth tourism as foreign nationals traveling to the United States primarily to give birth so their child automatically acquires US citizenship.
The BBC said Trump appealed to Republicans in Congress to pass legislation constricting birthright citizenship, and it reported that Democrats would almost certainly block any effort in the US Senate.
The ACLU warned that the ruling threatened to upend the lives of “hundreds of thousands of families” and said the decision reaffirmed that “The Constitution, not the president, determines who is recognized as a native-born citizen.”
The stakes described by the BBC extended beyond the birthright case, noting that the court had also rejected Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship for the children of temporary visitors and undocumented migrants while delivering other rulings that expanded his power in different areas.
