Overview
- With lower-court blocks still in place, the Supreme Court heard arguments this month on whether a president can narrow the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship by executive order, and several justices signaled skepticism about that power.
- The order, issued on President Trump’s first day in office, would grant automatic citizenship only to children born in the U.S. to parents who are citizens or lawful permanent residents.
- A Marquette Law School survey found most respondents want the Court to strike down the order, and even among those who approve of Trump’s immigration approach, 41 percent say the order is unconstitutional.
- A Pew Research Center analysis reported about 320,000 U.S. births in 2023 to mothers in the country illegally, roughly 9 percent of all births, underscoring how many future cases a narrowed rule could touch.
- Legal scholars point to the 14th Amendment and the 1898 Wong Kim Ark precedent as major hurdles to changing birthright citizenship, and advocacy groups warn that ending automatic proof of citizenship at birth would strain hospitals and vital-records offices.