Overview
- The Supreme Court, in a 6–3 decision delivered Tuesday, June 30, 2026, held that President Trump’s January 20, 2025 executive order was invalid and cannot be used to strip citizenship from U.S.-born children.
- Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present satisfy the 14th Amendment’s wording that they are “subject to the jurisdiction” and are citizens at birth, citing the 1898 Wong Kim Ark precedent.
- The order never took effect because multiple federal judges had already issued injunctions blocking enforcement while lawsuits moved through the courts.
- The White House has urged Congress to change the rules by statute but experts say a law would face immediate constitutional challenges and a lasting change would likely require the difficult process of amending the Constitution; researchers estimated the order could have affected roughly 250,000 births per year.
- The ruling deepens splits within the Court’s conservative wing, hands the political fight over citizenship to Congress and state legislatures, and preserves legal protections and access to benefits for hundreds of thousands of U.S.-born children.