The US Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the right to birthright citizenship, rejecting an executive order by President Donald Trump that sought to end the longstanding constitutional guarantee for many children born to immigrants in the United States.
“Children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause,” the court said in its ruling.
The justices had signalled during oral arguments in April that they were likely to uphold the constitutional principle that individuals born in the United States to non-US citizens are automatically granted citizenship.
Trump attended the oral arguments in the case, becoming the first sitting US president to do so. The case is known as Trump v. Barbara.
What is US birthright citizenship?
Birthright citizenship is the legal principle under which most people born on US soil automatically acquire US citizenship at birth, irrespective of their parents’ nationality or immigration status.
The principle is rooted in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which was adopted in 1868 following the American Civil War. The amendment states that all persons born or naturalised in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are US citizens.
However, birthright citizenship is not absolute. It generally does not apply to children born in the United States to foreign diplomats who enjoy diplomatic immunity, as they are not considered subject to US jurisdiction. A rare historical exception also exists for children born to enemy forces occupying US territory.
What was Trump’s order on birthright citizenship
On his first day back in the White House on January 20, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for certain children born in the United States.
Under the order, children born in the US would no longer be eligible for citizenship documents if, at the time of their birth, their parents were in the country illegally or were undocumented immigrants. The directive was scheduled to take effect 30 days after it was signed.
The order was swiftly challenged in court, with several US district judges ruling that it violated the Constitution. Two federal appellate courts subsequently upheld injunctions blocking the executive order from taking effect.
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