On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a major blow to one of President Donald Trump’s key immigration policies. In a 6-3 decision, the highest court ruled that birthright citizenship remains protected by the Constitution, thereby overturning the executive order that sought to automatically deny U.S. citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants and individuals with temporary visas who were born on U.S. soil.
With this ruling, the justices reaffirmed an interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment that has been in effect for more than 150 years and which establishes that virtually every person born in the United States is a citizen from the moment of birth, with very specific exceptions, such as the children of foreign diplomats.
Supreme Court Upholds Citizenship by Birth
The majority opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, concludes that children born in the United States to parents who are in the country unlawfully or with temporary immigration status are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and, therefore, the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees them citizenship from birth.
The decision is a major blow to Trump, who signed the executive order on the same day he began his second presidential term, January 20, 2025.
During his campaign, the president had promised to end automatic citizenship by birth, arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment had been misinterpreted for decades.
Not everyone agreed
The Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to redefine the birthright citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, which would have denied citizenship to children born in the United States to parents who were in the… pic.twitter.com/aLuwhAqFxb
– La Jornada (@lajornadaonline) June 30, 2026
According to estimates cited during the litigation, the measure would have affected hundreds of thousands of babies born in the United States each year to undocumented parents or parents with temporary visas, who would have lost their automatic right to U.S. citizenship.
The ruling also upholds a historic precedent established by the Supreme Court itself in 1898, in the case of United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which is considered the modern legal basis for birthright citizenship in the United States.
Although the majority fully supported the constitutional protection of citizenship by birth, the decision was not unanimous.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch voted against the decision, while Brett Kavanaugh agreed that the executive order could not stand, although he expressed disagreements regarding the legal basis used by the majority.
With this ruling, citizenship by birth remains in effect in the United States under the same rules that have been in place for more than a century and a half.
This represents a major victory for civil rights and immigrant advocacy organizations that have challenged the presidential order since it was signed.
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