Supreme Court upholds 14th Amendment

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - In a closely watched decision, the Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down President Trump’s Executive Order from his first day in office. The order would have banned birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and some temporary foreign visitors.

Nearly a year and half after President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order banning birthright citizenship, in a major opinion, the Supreme Court on Tuesday called the President’s action unconstitutional.

Back in January, 2025, President Trump noted, “Birthright, that’s a big one,” while signing his E.O.

In a 6-3 decision, the nation’s highest court struck down the President’s Executive Order – validating the concept that virtually everyone born on American soil is automatically a U.S. citizen.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, that birthright citizenship is enshrined in the 14^th Amendment of the Constitution.

“The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to every free-born person in this land. We keep that promise today.”

The President’s Executive Order declared that future children born in the U.S. wouldn’t be considered citizens if their parents were living in the country illegally or were visiting the country on temporary visas.

But that order never took effect as lower federal courts said it appeared to conflict with the 14th Amendment, which states that, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

President Trump is convinced that shouldn’t be, “No other nation does that birthright citizenship, no one, not even close.”

Three of the court’s conservatives — Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil M. Gorsuch and Samuel Alito dissented in the case. They argued that the 14^th Amendment was only meant to apply to freed black slaves.

That was also the view of President Trump who reacted to the Court’s decision on Truth Social Tuesday, writing, “The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation.”

However, the Court reaffirmed that the 14th Amendment automatically confers citizenship on any child born in the U.S., so any changes to that principle would need to be done by amending the Constitution.