The court rejected the order, which aimed to deny citizenship to children born in the US to parents who are in the country illegally or on a temporary basis, reaffirming a long-standing interpretation of the 14th Amendment.
In its ruling, the court said that children born in the United States to non-citizen parents fall under US jurisdiction and are therefore citizens at birth under the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The amendment, adopted in 1868 after the Civil War, states that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the country and of the state in which they reside.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the court, said the Constitution extends citizenship to “every free-born person in this land,” reinforcing what he described as a long-settled understanding of the law.
The case, Trump v. Barbara, stems from an executive order signed by Trump on his first day back in office in January 2025, which sought to block citizenship documents for babies born in the US to undocumented or temporarily present immigrants.
Several lower courts had earlier blocked the order, ruling that it violated the Constitution.
The decision marks a significant legal setback for the Trump administration’s attempt to reinterpret birthright citizenship rules.
