On April 1, 2026, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding President’s Trump Executive Order which would restrict birthright citizenship.
Under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
However, under President Trump’s Executive Order, only children of US citizens and green card holders who are born in the United States would be considered citizens of the United States at birth. When the Executive Order was issued on January 20, 2025, it was immediately challenged in Federal Court and all Courts have ruled that it violates the 14th Amendment and have prohibited it from going into effect.
For over a century, the Supreme Court has relied on their precedent decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) to determine who is entitled to birthright citizenship. The Court held that “a child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent, who, at the time of his birth, are subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent domicile and residence in the United States, and are there carrying on business, and are not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China” became “at the time of his birth a citizen of the United States by virtue of the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.”
President Trump has erroneously stated that the United States is the only country in the world which practices birthright citizenship and that we are “stupid” for doing so. In reality, over 30 other countries practice birthright citizenship including nearly all countries in North and South America.
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If he wished to prohibit children of undocumented parents born in the US from becoming citizens at birth, he could go to Congress and request that they sponsor a Constitutional Amendment. Instead, he seeks to change the 14th Amendment and a Supreme Court precedent opinion with the stroke of a pen.
Worse yet, he seeks to penalize hundreds of thousands of immigrant families who have lived in the United States for years and have followed all the rules. Consider, for example, the many thousands of Indian professionals who are present in the U.S. on H-1B visas. Because of country caps, it frequently takes 10 to 20+ years for them to get green cards. It would take even longer except when their children who are born in the US turn 21, they can sponsor their parents for green cards since they became U.S. citizens at birth. Remove this and the sons and daughters could be separated from their parents when they turn 21, and their parents may not live long enough to get green cards.
So much for following the law!
As for the oral arguments before the Supreme Court on April 1, you can listen to them online.
Suffice to say that the 2 Justices that I feel fairly certain will vote to uphold Trump’s Executive Order are Justice Alito and probably Justice Thomas.
It is interesting that the 3 Justices that the President appointed to the Court: Gorsuch, Kavanagh and Barrett all seem skeptical of the government’s position. Maybe that is why President Trump walked out of the Courtroom in the middle of the oral argument.
In any case, expect a decision by late June.
Much of the oral argument focuses on the meaning of the word “domicile”. It almost put me to sleep. However, if you are interested in exploring this, here are some links to various analysis of the oral arguments:
Supreme Court appears likely to side against Trump on birthright citizenship
Supreme Court Expresses Skepticism at Trump’s Effort to Eliminate Birthright Citizenship
5 takeaways from Trump’s birthright citizenship arguments
