Trump suffers major defeat as Supreme Court upholds Birthright Citizenship

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

The United States Supreme Court has dealt a major legal setback to President Donald Trump, striking down his executive order seeking to end automatic birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants and parents on temporary visas.

In a 6-3 ruling delivered on Friday, the nation’s highest court upheld the long-standing constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, reaffirming that children born on American soil are citizens at birth regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

The ruling marks one of the most significant judicial defeats for Trump since returning to the White House and preserves a constitutional principle that has existed for more than 150 years.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to every child born in the United States, noting that the amendment was adopted after the American Civil War to settle the citizenship status of formerly enslaved people.

“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights,” Roberts wrote, adding that the framers of the amendment extended that promise to “every free-born person in this land.”

Trump had signed the executive order on his first day back in office in January 2025, arguing that ending automatic citizenship would help curb illegal immigration. The order immediately faced multiple legal challenges from Democratic-led states, civil rights organisations and immigration advocates, who argued it violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Lower federal courts blocked the order before the case reached the Supreme Court.

The decision also reaffirmed the court’s landmark 1898 ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which established that children born in the United States are citizens irrespective of their parents’ nationality or immigration status, except in limited circumstances such as children of foreign diplomats.

Reacting to the judgment, legal analysts described the ruling as a decisive rejection of attempts to reinterpret one of the country’s most established constitutional protections.

The court’s decision is expected to frustrate the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, forcing it to pursue alternative measures to tighten border controls rather than relying on executive action to redefine citizenship.

The United States remains one of about 30 countries worldwide that grant automatic citizenship based on birthplace, a principle known as jus soli. In contrast, many countries in Europe, Asia and parts of Africa determine citizenship primarily through descent from parents.