Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, blocks Trump order
Demonstrators gather in support of birthright citizenship in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on April 1, 2026.
Mehmet Eser | Anatolia | Getty Images
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the right to citizenship for people born in the United States and rejected President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at striking down the longstanding constitutional principle for children born to many immigrants.
“Children born in the United States from the illegal or temporary presence of their parents are ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Nationality Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” decision in question.
The court justices signaled during oral arguments in April that they would uphold automatic citizenship for people born in the United States who are not U.S. citizens.
Trump participated in oral arguments in the case, becoming the first president to do so.
The case is known as Trump v. Barbara.
The citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1868, states: “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 in which they reside.”
On his first day back at the White House on January 20, 2025, Trump signed an executive order aimed at rolling back that right.
The decision stated that after 30 days of its effective date, babies born in the United States are not entitled to a citizenship certificate if their parents are illegal immigrants or undocumented workers.
Several U.S. district court judges later ruled that Trump’s order violated the Constitution.
And two federal appeals courts upheld preliminary injunctions that blocked the decision from going into effect.
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