The US Supreme Court has struck down President Donald Trump’s attempt to end the longstanding practice of granting citizenship to anyone born on United States soil, delivering a significant setback to his immigration policy overhaul.

In a 6-3 ruling on July 1, 2026, the court rejected an executive order signed by Trump shortly after taking office in January 2025. The order barred automatic US citizenship for children born in the country to parents who were on temporary legal statuses or without documentation.

Trump’s executive order stated that if one parent is “unlawfully present in the United States” and the other is not a citizen or a “lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth,” the child cannot claim birthright citizenship.

The ruling reaffirms the principle grounded in the 14th Amendment of 1868, which defines US citizenship in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Rainer Baubock, a lecturer at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, said the ruling “preserves an inclusive conception of the American polity that includes the children born to undocumented migrants.” He added that future legislation to restrict birthright citizenship is unlikely, stating, “By deciding to entrench an obvious and literal interpretation of the Constitution, it seems [the court] closed any road for the Republican majority in Congress to restrict birthright citizenship in ordinary legislation. It would thus take a constitutional amendment and the chances for this to pass are practically zero.”

According to the university, the Asian population would experience the largest relative growth among immigrant groups, with 41 unauthorized births per 1,000 Asians without legal status, compared with 17 births per 1,000 Latinos without legal status.

President Trump has pledged to challenge the ruling.

Sources