The US Supreme Court's reinstatement of birthright citizenship by upholding the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution was a blow to US President Donald Trump, whose executive order denying citizenship to children born to undocumented immigrants and temporary foreign residents is no longer in force, providing relief to immigrant families even as his camp explores other avenues.
In a closely watched ruling, a majority of the court held that the Constitution guarantees citizenship to nearly everyone born on American soil, rejecting one of the central pillars of Trump's second-term immigration agenda.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, said the president's executive order was incompatible with the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, which was adopted after the Civil War to ensure that all persons born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are recognised as citizens.
"Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights – to freely participate in our political community," Roberts wrote, adding that the framers of the amendment had extended that promise to "every free-born person in this land".
Roberts was joined by the court's three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — along with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed that the executive order was unlawful under federal law but differed on its constitutional basis, while Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.
Trump criticised the judgment, calling it "too bad for our Country", and urged Congress to enact legislation ending birthright citizenship, arguing that a constitutional amendment was unnecessary. His remarks indicated that the White House intends to continue pursuing restrictions through legislative means after the judicial setback.
Civil rights organisations and Democratic leaders welcomed the ruling as a landmark affirmation of constitutional protections. The American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the executive order on behalf of affected families, described the judgment as a major victory, arguing that no president could alter constitutional guarantees through executive action.
The ruling also revisited the historical foundations of American citizenship, with the majority emphasising that the 14th Amendment overturned the infamous Dred Scott decision by rejecting ancestry as the basis of citizenship. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a concurring opinion, said the amendment's universal promise should permanently reject attempts to make bloodline, rather than birthplace, the determinant of citizenship.