Supreme Court Preserves Birthright Citizenship, Rejects Trump’s Constitutional Challenge

June 30, 2026

By Brian Hews

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed one of the nation’s oldest constitutional principles Tuesday, ruling that children born in the United States remain entitled to automatic citizenship regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

Most were expecting a 7-2 ruling but the vote was 6-3.

Dissenting from Tuesday’s decision were Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito.

Alito’s central argument was that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship only to people born in the United States who are fully subject to U.S. political jurisdiction, and he concluded that children of undocumented immigrants or temporary visitors do not meet that constitutional standard.

Justice Clarence Thomas joined Justice Samuel Alito’s dissent, agreeing that the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause was intended to apply more narrowly than the Court’s modern interpretation. Thomas agreed that the Constitution does not automatically guarantee citizenship to every child born on U.S. soil regardless of a parent’s immigration status and that the Court should have interpreted the amendment according to its original meaning rather than relying on more than a century of precedent.

The decision rejects President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for children born to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily.

In its opinion, the Court held that the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment continues to guarantee citizenship to nearly every person born on American soil, reaffirming more than 125 years of constitutional precedent established in the landmark 1898 case United States v. Wong Kim Ark.

The majority concluded that the Constitution’s language is clear and that any change to birthright citizenship would require a constitutional amendment rather than executive action.

The ruling leaves intact a policy that has existed since the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War and has long served as the foundation of American citizenship law.

President Trump criticized the decision, arguing that the Constitution has been misinterpreted for decades and pledging to continue pursuing immigration reforms through Congress.

Immigrant rights organizations celebrated the ruling, calling it a major victory for constitutional protections and millions of American families.

Legal experts said the decision provides certainty for hospitals, state governments and federal agencies by preserving the existing process under which children born in the United States automatically receive citizenship at birth.

While the ruling ends one of the nation’s highest-profile constitutional disputes over citizenship, it does not prevent Congress or future administrations from pursuing broader immigration reforms affecting visas, border security or deportation policies.

The decision is expected to remain one of the defining constitutional rulings of the Court’s 2025-26 term and reaffirms a legal doctrine that has shaped American citizenship for more than a century.