Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship, Rejects Trump Executive Order

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 30 that President Donald Trump's executive order restricting birthright citizenship violates the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The majority opinion held that the clause guarantees citizenship to children born in the United States to undocumented migrants and temporary visitors.

It cited the 1898 precedent United States v. Wong Kim Ark and stated that the clause enshrines the principle that soil, not blood, determines citizenship.

Court Opinions Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. authored the majority opinion.

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a three-page dissent stating that the executive order is fully lawful on its face and that he would be open to a later constitutional challenge if the order were applied to deny citizenship to children whose parents have made the U.S. their permanent home.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a 91-page dissent that Gorsuch signed, arguing that the Citizenship Clause ratified in 1868 was designed to secure equal rights for freed blacks after slavery. The full set of opinions totaled 194 pages.

ICE made over 10,000 arrests in five days following the decision, according to Fox News. President Trump responded to the ruling by calling for Congress to act to end birthright citizenship. >"The decision that rejected Donald Trump’s attempts to rewrite the Constitution was much too close." — The New Yorker