Trump Loses on BirthRight Citizenship, Steps Up Immigrant Arrests
NEWS & RESEARCH
By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court on June 30, 2026, affirmed that anyone born in the US is automatically granted citizenship. In January 2025, President Trump had issued an executive order directing federal agencies to no longer issue certain identity documents, such as Social Security numbers, to children of non-citizens, even though the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution provides: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Trump’s EO never went took effect because every lower court judge who reviewed it concluded, in the words of one judge, that it was "blatantly unconstitutional. "The majority opinion was drafted by Chief Justice Roberts. Four other justices agreed with him that the 14th Amendment guarantees “birthright citizenship.” But Justices Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch dissented, and Justice Kavanaugh, though concurring in the outcome, agreed with the dissenters that the 14th Amendment alone does not prohibit Congress or the president from limiting birthright citizenship. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE have have doubled their immigrant arrest and detention rates to 2,000 per day.
SOURCES: Supreme Court Opinion | NPR | American Immigration Council | Axios
ANALYSIS & OPINION
Legal analysts were not surprised by the outcome in Trump v. Barbara, given the plain language of the 14th Amendment, one of the three “Reconstruction Amendments,” and subsequent judicial precedent reinforcing birthright citizenship. Trump and the dissenters maintained that the 14th Amendment was only intended to remedy the disenfranchisement of slavery. But Justice Jackson rejected that view: “The Reconstruction Amendments were an anticaste, antisubordination reset for the Nation, not a mere spot treatment for the dark stain of slavery.” Amada Armenta,the director of UCLA’s Latino Policy & Politics Institute, called it “alarming” that the issue of birthright citizenship was up for debate in the first place and that the Court was split on the matter. The Brennan Center opined that the administration championed a view that “politicians get to choose who the people are and can extend or withdraw citizenship as they please.” Trump initially fumed over the majority’s decision, which was joined by Justice Coney Barrett, his nominee, but then maintained that he can get to the same results through legislation, a pathway described in Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion.
SOURCES: Brennan Center for Justice | MS NOW | Los Angeles Times
HOW TO FIX IT
Federal action:
There are currently four justices on the Supreme Court who did not find birthright citizenship guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. Thus, the Court is potentially one vote away from overturning this long-standing precedent. Any future Supreme Court nominee who comes before the Senate for confirmation needs to affirm not just an abstract commitment to honoring precedent but, specifically, that the 14th Amendment ensures citizenship for anyone born in the incorporated territory of the US, except the child of a foreign diplomat.
Defeat any legislative effort to modify the Immigration and Nationality Act to circumvent or dilute birthright citizenship.
