The U.S. Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship on June 30, 2026 [1], rejecting an executive order that sought to limit the practice.
The ruling preserves a fundamental pillar of U.S. law by affirming that the 14th Amendment overrides executive actions regarding citizenship. This decision prevents the administration from denying citizenship to children born on U.S. soil to mothers with undocumented or temporary status [2].
President Donald Trump signed the contested executive order in 2025 [3] on his first day in office. The order aimed to restrict the automatic granting of citizenship to those born in the U.S. to non-citizen parents. However, the Court said an executive order cannot override the 14th Amendment [4].
The 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, a principle the Court said remains intact [4]. The decision follows legal challenges to the 2025 order, which critics said was an unconstitutional attempt to redefine citizenship through administrative decree [2].
Legal experts said that the Court's decision reinforces the supremacy of the Constitution over presidential directives. By upholding the status quo, the ruling ensures that the legal status of children born in the U.S. remains unchanged regardless of their parents' immigration status [1].
The Court's ruling comes after significant debate over the interpretation of the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" within the 14th Amendment. The majority said that the existing legal framework clearly supports birthright citizenship for those born within the country's borders [2].
“The Court said an executive order cannot override the Constitution’s 14th Amendment”
This ruling establishes a clear legal boundary between executive authority and constitutional mandates. By rejecting the 2025 executive order, the Supreme Court has reaffirmed that the 14th Amendment provides a permanent guarantee of citizenship that cannot be altered by a president without a constitutional amendment, thereby maintaining the legal stability for millions of birthright citizens.
