People hold a sign as they participate in a protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court over President Donald Trump’s move to end birthright citizenship as the court hears arguments over the order in Washington, May 15, 2025.
Drew Angerer | Afp | Getty Images
The Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear arguments in a case that will determine if President Donald Trump can undo automatic citizenship for people born in the United States.
Trump, on his first day back in the White House on Jan. 20, issued an executive order that said babies born in the U.S. more than 30 days after that order were not entitled to be issued citizenship documents if their parents were temporary visitors or illegal immigrants.
Before Trump’s order, there was little dispute that the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, with rare exceptions, meant that children born in the country were automatically U.S. citizens, regardless of their parents’ status.
The Citizenship Clause in that amendment says, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
The Supreme Court, which is expected to rule next year, will determine if Trump’s executive order complies with that amendment.
The order told federal agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the U.S. if their mother “was unlawfully present in the United States and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth,” or when the baby’s “mother’s presence in the United States was lawful but temporary, and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time.”
Several federal district court judges have found that Trump’s order violated the Constitution, and two federal circuit courts of appeals upheld injunctions blocking the order from taking effect.
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