DENNIS PATRICK: SUPREME COURT AND BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP
What is birthright citizenship as currently understood? In a word, birthright citizenship grants US citizenship to every baby born on US soil, regardless of the citizenship, domicile, or legal status of its parents.
This interpretation derives from the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” That sounds simple enough. What follows serves as a recap of Trump’s effort to clarify the 14th Amendment as used by illegal immigrants to gain citizenship.
On his first day in office of his second term, January 20, 2025, Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) unilaterally declaring that only newborns whose parents have permanent US legal status are "subject to the jurisdiction" of the US and therefore eligible to be citizens. His EO was in response to gross abuse by foreign nationals who sought the benefits of US citizenship without intention of assimilating.
Trump's order directed federal agencies – starting in February 2025 -- to stop issuing citizenship documents to US-born children of undocumented mothers or mothers in the country on temporary visas, if the father is not a US citizen or permanent resident.
Legal challenges were expected to eventually make their way to the US Supreme Court for a final verdict on its constitutionality. Trump’s EO argues that the 14th Amendment has been misinterpreted for decades allowing citizenship to be automatically granted to anyone who is simply born on American soil, even if their parents are illegals or tourists with visas. The US is one of the only first-world countries that follows such a broad requirement for automatic citizenship. European countries do not acknowledge citizenship for those born to illegal aliens or who engage in birth tourism.
Twenty-two states, all with Democrat control of their respective governments, filed a lawsuit against President Trump’s EO ending birthright citizenship in the US.
The Supreme Court on June 27, 2025, granted a partial stay of nationwide injunctions issued against President Trump's birthright EO handing Trump a win. In short, a single federal judge could not block national policy.
President Trump praised the U.S. Supreme Court for a "monumental victory" when the Court rolled back nationwide injunctions against his birthright citizenship EO. The 6-3 opinion was written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The court's three liberal justices dissented. The court, however, said it was not deciding whether the EO from Trump was constitutional, rather focusing on whether a single judge has the authority to issue universal injunctions.
Three months later, while implementing his EO, two federal courts universally blocked the order a second time on different grounds. Trump planned to asked the Supreme Court Justices for a definitive judgment on his reinterpretation of more than a century of settled legal precedent.
President Trump’s administration again asked the Supreme Court on September 26, 2025, to review the legality of his bid to limit birthright citizenship in the US thus creating a major test of precedent that could alter how the Constitution’s 14th Amendment has long been understood. The Supreme Court’s new session began October 6, 2025.
Consequently, the Justice Department again filed appeals against the lower court rulings that blocked Trump’s EO. The appeals read in part, “The lower court’s decisions invalidated a policy of prime importance to the President and his Administration in a manner that undermines our border security. Those decisions confer, without lawful justification, the privilege of American citizenship on hundreds of thousands of unqualified people…” The department asked the Supreme Court to accept and resolve the case in its new term.
The Court accepted the appeals and heard arguments in the case (Trump v. Barbara) on April 1, 2026. Traditionally, the Court issues its biggest opinions at the end of its term in June (sometimes slipping into early July).
If the Supreme Court again rules in Trump’s favor, that ruling will dramatically curtail illegal immigration into the US.
Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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