The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine the constitutionality of former President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship — a dramatic escalation in a legal battle that lower courts unanimously deemed incompatible with the Constitution and federal law.
A High Court Showdown Over a Core American Principle
The petition, filed by Trump and his administration, asks the justices to decide whether a Jan. 20 executive order—one that would grant automatic citizenship only to infants born on U.S. soil to at least one U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident parent—fits within the original meaning of the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.
The question sets up a direct confrontation over a constitutional guarantee that has long served as a foundational pillar of American identity, now placed under the microscope of textual history and political controversy.
A Long-Standing Interpretation Under Threat
The 14th Amendment’s Promise
Ratified in 1868, the amendment declares that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
For more than a century, since the Supreme Court’s landmark 1898 ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, this language has been understood to confer U.S. citizenship based solely on birth within the nation’s borders—regardless of parental immigration status.
Exceptions remain narrow: children of foreign diplomats, enemy occupiers, or those not considered subject to U.S. jurisdiction.
