The United States Supreme Court delivered a 6-3 decision invalidating former President Trump's Executive Order #14160, which claimed that individuals born in the US to mothers present unlawfully are not US citizens. The Court reaffirmed the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, which states that anyone "born . . . in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" is a US citizen.

The case centered on the interpretation of the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof." Trump's executive order argued that those born to mothers unlawfully present in the US are not subject to US jurisdiction and thus not entitled to citizenship. However, the Court held that the Clause reflects the "fundamental rule of citizenship by birth" as understood at common law, excluding only narrow categories such as children of foreign sovereigns, diplomats, enemies during hostile occupation, and members of Indian tribes. All others born on US soil are citizens at birth.

Justice Kavanaugh issued a separate opinion concurring with the judgment invalidating the executive order but dissenting on the rationale. He emphasized that the order contravened the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. §1401(a)), which mirrors the 14th Amendment's text by granting citizenship to all persons born in the US and subject to its jurisdiction. In Part II of his opinion, Kavanaugh joined dissenters Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch in asserting that the constitutional phrase does not mean what the Court interpreted in the landmark Wong Kim Ark case.

The decision was described as correct, with warnings that a contrary ruling would have had "horrific results."

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