U.S. President Donald Trump has taken his legal battle over birthright citizenship to the Supreme Court, seeking to limit citizenship for children born in the U.S. to noncitizen parents.
On January 20, 2025, Trump issued an executive order that aims to deny automatic citizenship to children born on U.S. soil if their parents are neither U.S. citizens nor lawful permanent residents. This move directly challenges the long-standing interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, which guarantees citizenship to nearly all individuals born in the country.
Federal district courts in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Washington state swiftly blocked the executive order, ruling it unconstitutional. In response, the Trump administration filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court, asking it to limit the scope of these nationwide injunctions so that the executive order could still be enforced in parts of the country not directly involved in the lawsuits.
The Trump administration argues that the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the 14th Amendment does not include children born to parents who are in the U.S. without legal status. This interpretation contradicts the precedent set by the landmark 1898 Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which upheld that the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to almost all individuals born in the U.S., regardless of their parents’ nationality.
The Supreme Court’s ruling on this issue could have far-reaching consequences for immigration law and the interpretation of birthright citizenship in the United States. If the court sides with the Trump administration, it could significantly alter the way citizenship is granted and affect thousands of individuals born in the U.S.
