Defeat for Trump: Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship

By a six to three vote, the highest court strikes down Trump's executive order restricting citizenship by birth. Even parts of the conservative majority side with the Fourteenth Amendment.

On June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court stopped Trump's attempt to restrict birthright citizenship. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion.

On June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled six to three that children born in the United States automatically receive American citizenship, declaring Donald Trump's executive order from the first day of his second term unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, joined by several conservative justices, which makes the ruling a more decisive defeat for the administration than many observers had expected.

What Trump's Order Intended

The order, signed in January 2025, sought to deny automatic citizenship to children whose parents were in the country without a valid residence permit or held only a temporary visa. The driving force behind the initiative was Trump adviser Stephen Miller. The court based its decision on the Fourteenth Amendment, which since 1868 has granted citizenship to all persons born in the country and subject to its jurisdiction, the principle known as birthright citizenship.

A Victory With a Side Effect

Despite the legal defeat, several constitutional scholars argue the administration has already achieved part of its actual goal. The months of public debate over the order pushed a demand that had lived at the political fringes for decades into the center of mainstream discourse for the first time.