The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship in a 5-4 decision, handing the White House a major loss on one of its most aggressive immigration moves.
Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion. He said, “Children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause,” Roberts wrote.
Roberts was joined by Amy Coney Barrett, Kagan, Sotomayor and Jackson. That split will almost certainly fuel more outrage on the right, especially from voters who thought the court might side with Trump on a core immigration fight.
In September, President Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to end birthright citizenship. Several federal judges had already blocked his executive order before the case reached the high court. The ruling now makes clear the court is not moving quickly to bless the White House’s approach.
Trump’s order took aim at what his team called a long-running misreading of the 14th Amendment. The administration argued that the law has been stretched to grant citizenship to children born to people in the country illegally. The order said, “It is the policy of the United States that no department or agency of the United States government shall issue documents recognizing United States citizenship, or accept documents issued by State, local, or other governments or authorities purporting to recognize United States citizenship, to persons: (1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States was lawful but temporary, and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth,” Trump’s order stated.
The order also argued that the 14th Amendment has not been read the way the left claims. “The [The] Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Consistent with this understanding, the Congress has further specified through legislation that “a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” is a national and citizen of the United States at birth, 8 U.S.C. 1401, generally mirroring the Fourteenth Amendment’s text,” the order stated.
For now, the ruling keeps birthright citizenship exactly where the court says it stands: in force for children born on U.S. soil, even as the political fight over the issue keeps raging.