The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled 6-3 that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship to children of illegal immigrants born in the United States, including anchor babies, striking down President Trump’s executive order.
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The written by Chief Justice John Roberts, and joined Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh (in part), along with the three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, affirmed longstanding precedent in the Court, specifically the 1898 United States v. Wong Kim Ark decision, which established that place of birth determines citizenship regardless of parental status.
The justices ruled that the Constitution’s phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” excludes only children of foreign diplomats and occupying forces, not those of undocumented immigrants or temporary visitors.
“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights—to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to “every free-born person in this land,” Roberts wrote. We keep that promise today.”
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented, with Justice Thomas authoring a 91-page dissent arguing against the majority’s interpretation.
In his scathing dissent, Thomas accused the majority of “repurposing” the 14th Amendment “to protect its own set of preferred rights that the Reconstruction Congress never contemplated and that cannot find support in its text.”
“[T]he Court adds to the sad history of the 14th Amendment, which was designed … to secure equal rights for the freed blacks but has instead been repurposed for political projects,” Thomas wrote.
“Today, the Court does so again by recognizing a constitutional right to citizenship for the children of all foreign birth tourists and illegal aliens,” the conservative justice added.
“I am not sure that today’s opinion will stand the test of time. The Citizenship Clause ‘added greatly to the dignity and glory of American citizenship.’ Today’s opinion devalues that citizenship. I respectfully dissent.”
The ruling came down Tuesday morning during a Republican news conference at the Capitol.
“Oh dear,” said Speaker Mike Johnson after reporter read out the decision.
Johnson stated that he believes the ruling will subject the country to “serious challenges going forward and we’ll have to deal with that.”
The Speaker said the 14th amendment is being abused by foreign nationals who come to the U.S. to have children in a “birthing tourism trend.”
Senator Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) vowed on social media to fight end Birthright Citizenship in Congress.
“This decision is egregiously wrong. SCOTUS upheld UNLIMITED birthright citizenship,” Schmitt said in a statement posted on X. “A bad reading of the 14th Amendment stripped Americans of control over who joins our political community. I fought this in Court. I’m fighting it in Congress. We must win.”
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President Trump reacted on Truth Social, urging Congress to get to work on legislation ending Birthright Citizenship.
The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation, with the support of the President, that has now been determined during this process. No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary! Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my Complete and Total Support!
A number of Congressional Republicans have legislation pending that could end Birthright Citizenship, including the Birthright Citizenship Act introduced by Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in January 2025.
In its other rulings Tuesday, the court upheld laws in roughly half the states that prohibit men and boys who identify as transgender from playing on female public school and college sport teams and struck down limits on party spending in federal elections.
SCOTUS ruled 6-3 in to uphold West Virginia’s “Save Women’s Sports Act,” which prohibits biological males from participating in girls’ and women’s school sports teams.
Justice Kavanaugh wrote the Majority opinion, ruling that West Virginia and Idaho did not violate the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause by maintaining female sports teams for biological females.
“Men and boys with gender dysphoria are not women or girls, even if they believe that they are,” Justice Thomas wrote in his concurrence. “Sex is an immutable ‘biological’ characteristic … it is binary; and ‘man’ and ‘woman,’. ‘boy’ and ‘girl,’ are the terms that correspond to adults and children of each sex.”
Thomas added: “To use language to obscure reality—to show ‘indifference regarding the truth’—is to lie to the public and cease to treat our fellow citizens ‘as equal[s].’”
President Trump reacted to the ruling on Truth Social, calling it a “BIG WIN.”
The United States Supreme Court just RULED AGAINST MEN PLAYING IN WOMEN’S SPORTS. Wow! That takes that ridiculous situation off the table!!!” the president said.
In the National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission the Court struck down limits on party spending in federal elections, reaffirming principles argued in cases like Citizens’ United in 2010, that money is speech.
The 6-3 decision, authored by Justice Kavanaugh, stated that the Federal Election Campaign Act’s limits “necessarily abridge political parties’ freedom of speech.”
“The Supreme Court just took restrictions off political spending! A BIG WIN FOR REPUBLICANS and, more importantly, The First Amendment!” Trump posted on Truth Social in reaction to the decision.
