The US Supreme Court has upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting President Donald Trump‘s executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States undocumented or temporarily are not American citizens.
Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, who authored Tuesday’s 6-3 decision, said Trump’s directive violated language in the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment that guarantees citizenship to virtually anyone born in the United States, with a few narrow exceptions.
“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community,” Roberts wrote, adding that the authors of the 14th Amendment extended that promise to every free-born person in the land.
“We keep that promise today,” Roberts wrote.
More than 250,000 babies born in the US each year would have been affected by Trump’s executive order if the court had ruled in its favour.
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Here are some initial reactions to the landmark apex court ruling:
Many Republicans and conservatives are viewing the ruling as a major setback for immigration enforcement and a flawed interpretation of the Constitution.
US President Donald Trump called the ruling “too bad for our Country,” but suggested Congress will be able to limit birthright citizenship through legislation.
“…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!”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said that, “I’m very disappointed in that outcome. I think it subjects the country to serious challenges going forward, and we’ll have to deal with it as Congress.”
The Louisiana Republican cited a “serious problem” with alleged abuses of birthright citizenship.
“Birthing tourism, they call it: a trend where people come and you just come on to the soil and have your child and then they’re able to avail themselves of the welfare state and everything else,” he added.
Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri called the Supreme Court’s decision “wrong, dangerous, and disastrous for American sovereignty and the American people.” He denounced the decision’s majority, including “squish conservatives,” in a post on X.
Schmitt added that Congress may need to act to restrict birthright citizenship following the court’s ruling.
“I will be announcing a forthcoming constitutional amendment to restore the sacred bond between American citizens and their government,” Schmitt wrote.
He said the amendment “will ensure that citizenship once again reflects allegiance, permanence, and membership in the American nation.”
“The Supreme Court’s ruling on birthright citizenship is a legal abomination. But it’s just more evidence that Congress and multiple presidents, in abdicating their duty on immigration for decades, have screwed America irredeemably,” said Ben Shapiro, a conservative commentator and pro-Trump blogger.
“Birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens will continue to be a ballooning negative consequence of the failure to enforce our immigration laws,” said Dale Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
“But that very fact makes it all the more urgent to step up enforcement to the maximum possible extent and end illegal immigration.”
