Overview
- The Supreme Court issued a 6–3 decision on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, voiding the January 20, 2025 executive order and holding that most children born on U.S. soil are citizens under the 14th Amendment.
- Lower federal courts had already blocked the order and it never took effect anywhere in the country before the high court's ruling.
- Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion citing long-standing precedent including United States v. Wong Kim Ark and framed citizenship as a constitutional guarantee.
- Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented and urged a narrower reading of the Citizenship Clause, while Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote separately that Congress could change the result through statute.
- The decision affects a policy that analysts estimated would have touched roughly a quarter-million newborns a year, prompts President Trump to press Congress for legislation, and leaves constitutional amendment or new laws as the only durable routes to alter birthright rules.