USA

Birthright citizenship ruling subjects US to ‘serious challenges’

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) responded to the Supreme Court’s ruling Tuesday that the Trump administration’s efforts to impose new restrictions on birthright citizenship are unconstitutional.

Shortly after news of the decision broke, journalists asked Johnson for his reaction at the press conference.

“I can say that I am very disappointed in this outcome,” the Louisiana Republican said. “I think this presents the country with serious challenges going forward, and we’re going to have to deal with that as Congress.”

He stated that there was a “serious problem” regarding allegations of abuse of birthright citizenship.

“They call it birth tourism: It’s a trend where people come, go out on your land, give birth to your child, and then they can take advantage of the welfare state and everything else,” the GOP leader added.

“He was abused,” he continued. “This is one of those things that is meant to serve a noble and important purpose and is being hindered and overused and abused, and so I’m sure we’ll continue to look at it. I’m sure the takeaway from this decision is that you need to amend the Constitution to fix this.”

The high court ruled that the 14th Amendment guarantees automatic citizenship for nearly all children born on U.S. soil. This includes children of parents who are in the country illegally.

The decision overturned a decision executive order The law, signed by President Trump in the early days of his second term, requires that at least one parent have citizenship or permanent legal status before a child born on U.S. soil can be granted citizenship.

This order was met with opposition from many Democrat-led states, who argued that this restriction violated the 14th Amendment.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the court’s majority opinion, joined by three liberal justices and Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch sided with the Trump administration, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh dissented from the court’s decision but voted to block Trump’s decision under federal law.

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