Supreme Court rejects Trump order. What is birthright citizenship?
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 struck down President Donald Trump's plan to end birthright citizenship for some children born in the United States, voting 6-3 that his executive order violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order ending automatic citizenship for children born in the United States if neither of their parents is lawfully in the country as a key part of his efforts to remove millions of immigrants from the country. Multiple federal courts reviewed his policy and found it illegal.
In other immigration cases, including last week's ruling allowing Trump to end deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants, the justices backed the president's authority.
In their latest decision, however, the justices said Trump cannot change the definition of birthright citizenship with the stroke of a pen. Trump's push to make that change upended how the constitutional guarantee – long considered a bedrock American principle – had historically been understood.
Birthright citizenship was enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1866 and was upheld by the Supreme Court more than 125 years ago.
Florida Gov. DeSantis also seeks to end birthright citizenship
Gov. Ron DeSantis said that birthright citizenship "doesn't make sense" as early as 2018 when he was a candidate for the job.
"I tend to think that the original interpretation of [the Fourteenth Amendment] would not apply," DeSantis said in a CBS interview. "But I think most of the court decisions kind of move in the direction of, `Hey, if you're born here, you are due it.' But I do think it would be good to have the court finally resolve it.
"I don't know if [Trump] can do it by executive order, but obviously if he did do it that would be tested immediately, and we would get a resolution," he said then.
DeSantis unsuccessfully campaigned against Trump for the Republican nomination for president in 2023 and made harsher immigration laws, including an end to birthright citizenship, central to his campaign.
"This idea that you can come across the border, two days later have a child and somehow that's an American citizen, that was not the original understanding of the 14th Amendment, and so we'll take action to force a clarification of that," DeSantis said in 2023, criticizing what he described as "birth tourism."
What is birthright citizenship?
Birthright citizenship means anyone born in a country is automatically a citizen of that country. Such people are called "natural citizens." Different countries with birthright citizenship laws may have different restrictions for eligibility.
Birthright citizenship was part of English common law and referred to as jus soli ("right of the soil").
Is birthright citizenship in the U.S. Constitution?
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed in 1866, less than a year after the end of the Civil War. Among other things, it overruled the previous Dred Scott ruling stating that enslaved people, even if born here, could never become citizens of the United States.
The very first sentence of the amendment is the Citizenship Clause:
The rest of the first section grants citizenship to all persons "born or naturalized in the United States," including formerly enslaved people, and provides them with "equal protection of the laws" while preventing states from passing laws to deprive them of it.
Trump contends that "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" rules out children born to parents who aren't citizens because they may feel loyal to a foreign country even if they're living in this one.
He directed federal agencies not to recognize the citizenship of babies born in the U.S. who do not have at least one parent who is an American citizen or lawful permanent resident, also known as a "green card" holder.
Can Trump change the Constitution?
Any attempt to change an existing amendment can only be done through a new constitutional amendment, which requires either a joint resolution passed by two-thirds of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, or a convention called by Congress in response to two-thirds of state legislatures requesting one.
However, Trump's order doesn't change the amendment at all.
Instead, it attempts to reinterpret the citizen clause in the amendment so that it no longer applies to the large numbers of people that it has covered for over a century.
Lower courts said Trump's interpretation contradicts the plain language of the citizenship clause, doesn't square with an 1898 landmark ruling by the Supreme Court about that clause, and violates the Immigration and Nationality Act, first passed in 1940.
What would Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship do?
Previously, "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" was interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court to mean that children of foreign diplomats or invading soldiers were not eligible for citizenship. Under Trump's order, this would also include people born in the U.S.:
- When that person's mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person's birth, or
- When that person's mother's presence in the United States at the time of said person's birth was lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under a Visa Waiver Program or on a student, work, or tourist visa) and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person's birth.
Even if it wasn't made retroactive, the move would dramatically increase the number of the undocumented population subject to arrest and deportation.
Do any other countries besides the U.S. have birthright citizenship?
Currently, 36 countries, including the U.S., and two territories have some sort of birthright citizenship, according to worldpopulationreview.com. Nearly all of them are in North, Central, or South America, possibly due to colonizing European countries hoping to entice settlers to the New World with relaxed, immigration-friendly laws.
Who is not a citizen even if they were born in the United States?
According to the American Immigration Council, before the executive order, American birthright citizenship was available to anyone born in the U.S. except for:
- Children of foreign diplomats
- Children born to soldiers considered enemy invaders during a hostile occupation of the U.S.
- People born in American Samoa's unincorporated territories
Indigenous peoples born in the U.S. were excluded until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
Has the Supreme Court ruled before on birthright citizenship?
Yes, in two notable cases.
In 1898, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, after the U.S.-born Wong took a trip to China and was refused re-entry to the United States. Up until 1882, there were no immigration laws in the U.S., so it hadn't been an issue before. The Chinese Exclusion Acts restricted Chinese immigration and prohibited Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens.
In a 6-2 ruling that has stood the test of time, the court determined that because he was born on U.S. soil and his parents were not "employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China," Wong was a U.S. citizen.
The court ruled again in 1982 when Texas attempted to withhold education funds for the children of undocumented immigrants. In Plyler v. Doe, the court reasoned that undocumented immigrants are people "in any ordinary sense of the term" and are consequently afforded 14th Amendment protections.
Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY, contributed to this story.
C. A. Bridges is a journalist for the USA TODAY Network-Florida's service journalism Connect team. You can get all of Florida's best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Supreme Court rejects Trump order. What is birthright citizenship?
Reporting by C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
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This story was originally published June 30, 2026 at 10:57 AM.