The Supreme Court has blocked Trump’s attempt to end citizenship rights

The Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship, ruling 6-3 against President Donald Trump’s move to end the long-standing right through executive order.

Birthright citizenship began at Reconstruction. Under the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868 to ensure citizenship and equal protection for the children of former slaves, anyone born in the United States “and under its jurisdiction” is a citizen.

Trump issued the order, titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” just hours after he was sworn in to return to office in early 2025 — and the administration has only been charged in response. Defending the main law before the Supreme Court, Attorney General D. Sauer they argued that non-citizens and their children are “not under the jurisdiction” of the United States, since their allegiance is to foreign countries.

An about 250,000 children are born in the US to non-citizen parents each year. The birthright ban on citizenship would not have gone into effect retroactively, but would have applied to anyone born within 30 days of Trump’s executive order.

Even conservative judges were skeptical of what the officials said. When Sauer said that the 14th Amendment should be revisited because we live in a different country than Reconstruction, Justice Neil Gorsuch responded: “It’s the same Constitution.” However, the fact that such fundamental freedoms had to be discussed shows how much Trump’s vision has affected American politics.

Gorsuch finally got the nerve, not only to sign a dissenting opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas but also to write one of his own. Justice Samuel Alito also dissented.