DONALD Trump has vowed to ask Congress to end birthright citizenship after the Supreme Court struck down his executive order to end the policy in a fractured 6-3 ruling.
The president called the decision “too bad for our Country” and implied it was a win for China in a string of scathing Truth Social posts after the opinion was announced.
China has been accused of using the US policy for “birth tourism” with nationals having children in American territories to ensure their kids are citizens.
“I would like to congratulate President Xi, and the Great Country of China, on their massive Birthright Citizenship WIN!” the president posted.
Trump also insisted lawmakers could restrict birthright citizenship – one of his biggest immigration priorities – without changing the Constitution
The justices in Washington handed down the highly anticipated decision on Tuesday on the final day of the Supreme Court’s term.
The judgment upheld the longstanding interpretation of the 14th Amendment and blocked Trump’s executive order from last year from taking effect.
The executive order sought to deny automatic citizenship to US-born children whose mothers were in the country illegally or temporarily and whose fathers were neither American citizens nor permanent residents.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh provided the sixth vote against Trump’s order but did not join the majority’s constitutional reasoning.
Kavanaugh said the directive instead conflicted with federal citizenship law, which grants citizenship at birth using wording similar to the 14th Amendment.
Chief Justice John Roberts led a narrower 5-4 majority finding that the 14th Amendment protects citizenship for children born in the US to parents who are living in the country illegally or temporarily.
The result was a 6-3 ruling against Trump’s order, but only five justices agreed that his policy also violated the Constitution.
Roberts was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
He wrote that children born on American soil to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present are “citizens at birth.”
“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community,” Roberts wrote.
“We keep that promise today.”
The judgment therefore struck down Trump’s order 6-3, while the broader constitutional protection for birthright citizenship was backed by a slimmer 5-4 majority.
Trump seized on Kavanaugh’s separate reasoning as he demanded that Congress pass legislation restricting the right.
“The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary!”
Trump urged lawmakers to “start TODAY” on ending what he described as “expensive and unfair to our Country” birthright citizenship.
“They will have my Complete and Total Support!” he added.
However, any such law would face a fresh legal challenge because five justices found that the Constitution itself protects citizenship for the children covered by Trump’s order.
Trump signed the executive order on January 20, 2025, his first day back in the White House.
It told federal agencies not to recognize the citizenship of babies born in the US when neither parent was an American citizen or lawful permanent resident.
The measure targeted children whose mothers were in the country illegally or legally present on temporary visas.
Lower courts blocked the order before it could take effect, eventually sending the dispute to the nation’s highest court.
Under the longstanding interpretation of US law, almost every child born on American soil automatically becomes an American citizen regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
The principle is known as jus soli, or “right of the soil,” because citizenship is based on where someone is born.
Lower courts blocked the order before it could take effect, setting up the showdown before the nation’s highest court.
Under current practice, almost every baby born on American soil becomes a citizen regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
The rule is based on the principle of jus soli, or “right of the soil,” which grants citizenship according to where someone is born.
Other countries rely on jus sanguinis, or “right of blood,” which bases a child’s citizenship on their parents’ nationality.
The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 following the Civil War, declares that all people “born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” are citizens.
Congress later included the same principle in federal citizenship law passed in 1940.