WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said on Friday that it would decide whether President Trump, acting where Congress has not, would restrict birthright citizenship for some people born in the United States. US Supreme Court to Review Trump Executive Order Denying Automatic Citizenship for Some Babies. The justices will consider a Jan. 20 executive order that directs federal agencies to reject automatic citizenship for babies whose parents are not US citizens or green card holders, challenging the scope of the 14th Amendment and the president’s authority over immigration. Dec. 5, 2025
Supreme Court wades into the birthright citizenship battle.
At stake is Trump’s executive order that makes agencies not treat as citizens children born in the United States when their mother is here illegally or on a temporary visa, and their father is neither a citizen nor a legal permanent resident. Several federal courts promptly enjoined the policy as likely unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear only a nationwide class action on behalf of the affected families. Arguments are likely to be held in the spring, and a decision is expected by late June, Reuters reported.
Trump’s team of lawyers maintains that the language of “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the 14th Amendment has been misconstrued and need not extend birthright citizenship protections to children born of undocumented workers or short-term visitors. Advocates say the order would discourage illegal immigration and “birth tourism,” and emphasise that what many view as an assault on the amendment seeks to return it to its supposedly original meaning, while detractors call it a novel effort by a chief executive to constrict citizenship through fiat.
Opponents — including civil-rights groups and several Democratic-led states — argue that for over a century, the Supreme Court, and Congress through legislation, have treated almost everyone born here as entitled to birthright citizenship, invoking the ruling in 1898 known as United States v. Wong Kim Ark and later decisions applying the 14th Amendment to children of noncitizens. According to a fact sheet published by the American Immigration Council, if that’s the interpretation taken, it would be only children of foreign diplomats or those born as part of a hostile occupying force who do not fall within the guarantee and not sons and daughters of undocumented parents.
Long-running debate over birthright citizenship
The case comes after years of political and legal battles. A 2015 report by the Migration Policy Institute warned that repealing birthright citizenship could create a permanent group of people who are not full members of U.S. society and increase the number of noncitizen children living in the country. Meanwhile, conservative scholars have argued that the Constitution does not guarantee citizenship to children born in the United States to parents without permanent status. Trump supported this position several times, and in 2018, he told reporters he could eliminate the policy “with an executive order,” a remark highlighted in an Axios interview that previewed the current legal dispute before the justices.
What the court’s birthright citizenship decision might mean
If the Supreme Court allows Trump’s order to stand, countless more children born in the United States could grow up abroad without citizenship in any country where they live. They would depend on their parents’ home country for a passport, if it is granted, or might be stateless. Academics at migration think tanks say revoking birthright citizenship could expand the undocumented population, creating America’s first hereditary underclass—a status that can never be fully resolved. This decision would reaffirm birthright citizenship as a core promise protected by the 14th Amendment and restrict how far presidents can go in changing citizenship law by executive order. For now, injunctions remain, and children born in the United States still receive U.S. passports and Social Security numbers as the court weighs a decision that will shape who counts as American for generations to come.
