- US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump’s agenda.
- Ruling rebuffs Trump’s 14th Amendment reinterpretation attempt.
The US Supreme Court has upheld birthright citizenship, reaffirming that nearly everyone born in the United States is automatically entitled to American citizenship under the Constitution. The landmark ruling rejects a key element of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, which sought to deny citizenship to children born in the US to parents who were in the country unlawfully or on temporary visas. The decision reinforces the long-standing interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment and is expected to have far-reaching implications for immigration policy and constitutional law.
Court Upholds Constitutional Protection
In its ruling, the Supreme Court stated that children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present remain “subject to the jurisdiction” of the country and are therefore entitled to citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.
Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the majority opinion, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Amy Coney Barrett. Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed with the judgment but partly dissented, while Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch issued separate dissenting opinions.
The judgment represents a significant setback for the Trump administration, which had sought to reinterpret the Constitution through an executive order signed on the first day of the President’s second term.
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Challenge To Trump’s Order
Trump’s executive order aimed to end automatic citizenship for children born to parents living in the US unlawfully or holding temporary legal status. The administration argued that the constitutional phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” excluded such children from citizenship.
The order immediately prompted legal challenges from Democratic-led states and civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which argued that birthright citizenship has been a settled constitutional principle for more than 150 years.
During oral arguments, ACLU lawyer Cecillia Wang told the court that the Fourteenth Amendment established a clear rule guaranteeing citizenship to everyone born in the United States. The amendment was adopted in 1868 following the Civil War to overturn the infamous Dred Scott ruling, which had denied citizenship to Black Americans.
The Trump administration also relied on the concept of “domicile”, arguing that people in the country unlawfully or temporarily lacked permanent allegiance to the United States. However, the Supreme Court declined to accept that interpretation, preserving the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship and maintaining a legal principle that affects hundreds of thousands of births each year.
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