US4 min(s) read
Published 11:15 03 Jul 2026 GMT
Donald Trump has seemingly suggested breaking the law after the Supreme Court ruled against him.
One of the first executive orders the 80-year-old president signed after returning to office in January 2025 was to end automatic US citizenship for children born to people who are in the country illegally or temporarily.
Birthright citizenship has been protected under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution since 1868, when it was adopted in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Originally intended to guarantee citizenship to formerly enslaved people, the amendment states that "all persons born or naturalized, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States".
As the American Immigration Council explains: "Birthright citizenship is the principle that people born in the United States are Americans - full members of our society from the moment they are born.
"It reflects a simple and powerful idea: if you’re born here, you belong here."
Trump argued that children born to undocumented immigrants and some temporary visitors were not "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" and therefore should not automatically become US citizens.
On June 30, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 against Trump's executive order, concluding that it violates the Constitution.
Five justices, in a majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, found that the long-established understanding of the 14th Amendment makes almost everyone born in the United States a citizen.
"Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights - to freely participate in our political community. The framers of the fourteenth amendment extended that promise to 'every free-born person in this land'," Roberts wrote, per BBC News. "We keep that promise today."
Justice Brett Kavanaugh also wrote separately to say he believes the executive order violates federal law.
The ruling means children born in the United States to parents who are "unlawfully or temporarily present" remain "citizens at birth" under the Constitution.
The president slammed the decision on Truth Social and claimed Congress could end birthright citizenship without changing the Constitution.
He wrote: "The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation, with the support of the President, that has now been determined during this process.
"No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary! Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my Complete and Total Support!"
However, Congress cannot amend the Constitution through ordinary legislation as the New Republic explained: "A constitutional amendment requires a supermajority - two-thirds of both the House and Senate - to pass."
"Alternatively, the issue could technically be put to a constitutional convention, though two-thirds of states would need to support the motion to have one at all, and any proposed changes to an amendment would still require ratification by three-fourths of the states."
The Supreme Court's ruling prompted mixed reactions across the political spectrum.
White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a long-time advocate of stricter immigration policies, called it "one of the most destructive and outrageous decisions" in the Supreme Court's history.
"American citizenship is not the birthright of the world," he said.
"No provision of the Constitution can be read to require our national self-obliteration."
Meanwhile, Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, said the Supreme Court had "finally affirmed that all persons born in the United States are American citizens," adding: "There is, and shall be, no question."
Dariely Rodriguez, chief counsel at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, also celebrated the outcome.
"The ruling solidifies what we have known to be true for over a hundred years," she said.
"Anyone born on American soil, regardless of the legal status of their parents, is born an American citizen.
"We have endured an incredible test of our collective will as a nation and have prevailed," she added.
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