US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, rebuffing Trump
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution guarantees automatic citizenship to virtually all children born in the country, striking down President Donald Trump's executive order in a significant defeat for his immigration agenda.
In a 6-3 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion affirming the long-standing rule of citizenship by birth, rooted in the 14th Amendment. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the lead dissent, a lengthy opinion agreeing with the president's argument that the amendment applied only to former slaves and their descendants.
The ruling rejected an order Trump signed on the first day of his second term, which sought to deny citizenship to babies born in the US to parents who entered the country illegally or who were living there on temporary visas. Analysts estimated the order would have affected around 250,000 babies a year.
The executive order had never taken effect, as every lower-court judge who reviewed it found it unconstitutional, with one describing it as "blatantly unconstitutional." The Supreme Court's decision brought a definitive end to the legal challenge.
The outcome was a notable check on the president's expansive use of executive power, delivered by a court with a conservative majority that includes three justices Trump appointed. It preserves a constitutional guarantee that has underpinned American citizenship for more than a century.
