BREAKING: Supreme Court Deals Major Rebuke to Trump in Bombshell Decision on Birthright Citizenship in

Kathianne BonielloJun 30th, 2026, 10:40 am
 
Supreme Court Building Following Tariff Ruling

Photo by Bryan Dozier/NurPhoto via AP)

The Supreme Court’s historic ruling on birthright citizenship Tuesday dealt a blow to President Donald Trump‘s immigration agenda, by tossing an executive order that sought to redefine American citizenship.

In a 6-3 decision, the court essentially upheld the nation’s 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship for those “born or naturalized” in the United States.

The 14th Amendment also crucially defines the rights of citizens:

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, while Justice Brett Kavanaugh dissented in part. Justices Amy Coney Barrett and liberal justices Sonya Sotomayor,  Elena Kagan, Ketanji Jackson Brown made up the rest of the majority, while Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas dissented.

Trump’s executive order, issued on the first day of his second term, had declared that children born to illegal immigrants, or those in the country temporarily, are not American citizens.

Kavanaugh’s dissent focused on whether the January 2025 executive order violated the Constitution:

The Court today holds that the Order violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. I respectfully disagree with the Court’s constitutional holding. In my view, the Executive Order does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. But the Order does contravene a federal statute, 8 U. S. C. §1401(a). Congress could—consistent with the Fourteenth Amendment—amend §1401(a) or otherwise enact new legislation establishing exceptions to birthright citizenship for children born to foreign citizens unlawfully or temporarily in the country. But Congress has not yet done so.

The move left the door open for Republicans to continue the fight on the birthright citizenship issue, legal scholars said.

At least one U.S. Senator — Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) — was eager to take up the cause, pledging to bring a constitutional amendment on the issue:

The president has torched birthright citizenship as “one of the many great scams of our time,” and the executive order has been a centerpiece of his controversial immigration agenda.

He also took the extraordinary step of attending oral arguments in the case, making history on April 1 as the first sitting president to do so.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has targeted “birth tourism,” in which scam artists help pregnant travelers come to America specifically to give birth for citizenship purposes, earlier this month shutting down what the State Department said was a “sophisticated tourism network.”

Trump has also repeatedly falsely claimed the United States is the only nation with birthright citizenship, according to CNN fact checker Daniel Dale, who noted about three dozen other countries give citizenship to those “born on their soil.”

The historic decision came a day after the court handed the Trump administration a major win, expanding presidential power by upholding the firings of independent federal agency heads. The exception was Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, whom the administration accused of mortgage fraud.

Cook, who has been fighting her August 2025 ouster, should be allowed to remain in her position while her case plays out in court, the Supreme Court ruled.

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