US birthright citizenship: SC upholds promise of equality in Declaration of Independence
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The Supreme Court on June 30, 2026, declared that universal birthright citizenship is protected by the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, meaning that nearly all babies born in the United States automatically become American citizens, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
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The ruling rejects President Donald Trump’s executive order, signed the first day of his second administration, which sought to end birthright citizenship for the children of parents present in the country illegally and for tourists visiting only temporarily.
The high court ruled that “under the Constitution, they are citizens by birth”.
A close decision
The ruling was split 5-4 on the meaning of the 14th Amendment. A sixth justice, Brett Kavanaugh, ruled against the Trump order on the grounds that it violates federal law – which Congress could alter – but not the Constitution itself, making the ruling 6-3 against Trump.
Supreme Court watchers, including myself, expected the three liberal justices – Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor – to rule in favour of universal birthright citizenship, but imagined that the six conservatives would divide.
Two conservatives, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined the liberals to form a narrow majority.
Four of the justices appointed by Republican presidents see the original public meaning of the 14th Amendment as quite different, primarily recognising the citizenship of former slaves and their...