Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship
Washington: The United States Supreme Court overturned President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship, dealing the biggest legal blow to his presidency since ruling against the tariff regime earlier this year.
But in a major win for the Trump administration, the court allowed states to ban transgender athletes from sports for women and girls, finding that “separate sports teams for biological men and biological women are reasonable,” given the natural physical differences between the sexes.
The opinions were released just before the court’s long summer recess and came a day after a series of rulings on matters related to the Trump administration that will affect presidential power well beyond Trump’s term.
In a split decision, a majority of the panel affirmed birthright citizenship, ruling: “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to the possession of rights—the right freely to participate in the political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment made this promise ‘to every man freeborn in these lands.'”
The first sentence of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
One of Trump’s first acts on January 20, 2025 (the day he took office) was to sign an executive order stipulating that citizenship would not be recognized if a baby’s mother was illegally present in the United States at the time of birth and the father was not a citizen or permanent resident.
Citizenship will also not be granted if the mother was legally but temporarily in the United States at the time of birth and the father is not a citizen or permanent resident.
Trump has already stated that he expects the court to rule against him. In the minutes before the decision was announced, he posted a link to an article revealing how bills before the U.S. Congress sought to change immigration law and restrict birthright citizenship in much the same way as his executive order.
Immigration reform has been a major focus of Trump’s second term, including closing the southern border with Mexico and deporting millions of people the administration says are living in the United States illegally.
Despite its 6-3 conservative majority often ruling in Trump’s favor, the Supreme Court has been one of the key handbrakes on the president’s agenda; especially with its cancellation of so-called “reciprocal tariffs” in February.
More to come
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political correspondent in Canberra.Connect with: X or email.
