The Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision on June 30, 2026, rejecting President Donald Trump's attempt to end birthright citizenship in the United States through executive order. The ruling reaffirms over a century of legal precedent that grants automatic citizenship to babies born on American soil. Chief Justice John Roberts stated that citizenship is fundamental to participation in the political community, a promise extended by the Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment to every free-born person in the U.S.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Samuel Alito dissented, arguing that the Constitution and federal law do not guarantee citizenship to children born to parents who are not domiciled in the U.S. Trump contended that children born to unlawful immigrants and temporary visitors should not qualify for citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment, which was enacted to address the status of former slaves and their descendants.
Advocates for immigrant rights warned that Trump's policy change would negatively impact hundreds of thousands of children born annually to non-citizen parents, complicating their citizenship status. Cecilia Wang, ACLU legal director, emphasized that the court's decision upholds the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship. The Migration Policy Institute estimated that approximately 255,000 children born each year to non-citizen parents would have lost legal status under Trump's order. This ruling maintains the status quo, as every lower court that reviewed the order deemed it unlawful.