US Supreme Court Strikes Down Donald Trump's Executive Order on Birthright Citizenship

The United States Supreme Court has officially struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to limit citizenship rights for individuals born on US soil. In a ruling delivered on Tuesday (30/6) local time, Chief Justice John Roberts affirmed that all children born on US soil are under the protection of the constitution. The decision arose from the case Trump v. Barbara, in which the justices adjudicated a challenge against the policy established by the Trump administration in 2025. The policy had previously aimed to abolish the automatic granting of citizenship to children of temporary visa holders and undocumented immigrants. The Trump administration argued that the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution should not protect children of parents without permanent residency status. They claimed that the prevailing legal interpretation had become a pull factor for the entry of undocumented immigrants into the United States. However, Chief Justice Roberts, in the majority opinion, rejected that argument. He concluded that every child born to parents present in US territory, regardless of their legal status or duration of stay, is categorised as a person ‘born in the United States’ and ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’. ‘According to the US Constitution, they are citizens of the United States from birth,’ Roberts asserted. He added that citizenship is the most fundamental right for a person to possess other rights and to participate in the political life of the country. The ruling revealed a division among the supreme court justices, although the majority vote upheld the principle of birthright citizenship (jus soli) as it has been understood for more than a century. With this decision, the legal principle granting citizenship to every person born in US territory remains in effect without change.