People hold placards during a protest against President Donald Trump’s move to repeal birthright citizenship before the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments over the order in Washington, May 15, 2025.
Drew Angerer | AFP | Getty Images
The Supreme Court announced Friday that it will hear arguments in a case that will determine whether President Donald Trump can revoke the automatic citizenship of people born in the United States.
On January 20, on his first day back in the White House, President Trump issued an executive order stating that infants born in the United States more than 30 days after the order are not entitled to citizenship documents if their parents are temporary residents or illegal immigrants.
Until President Trump’s order, there was little dispute that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution means that, with rare exceptions, children born in that country automatically become U.S. citizens, regardless of their parents’ status.
The amendment’s citizenship clause reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
The Supreme Court, expected to rule next year, will decide whether President Trump’s executive order complies with the amendment.
The order directed federal agencies to deny citizenship to children born in the United States if the mother was “unlawfully present in the United States and the person’s father was not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of birth,” or if the infant’s “mother’s presence in the United States was lawful but temporary and the person’s father was not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time.”
Multiple federal district judges have found President Trump’s order unconstitutional, and two federal circuit courts have upheld injunctions blocking the order from taking effect.
