The Supreme Court ruled that all children born in the United States are citizens, upholding what has been one of the country’s bedrock principles for more than 125 years and handing President Donald Trump a loss on one of his top priorities.
Trump signed an executive order the first day of his second term to limit citizenship to children born to citizens or legal permanent residents, rather than tourists or undocumented immigrants. But the high court has interpreted the Constitution’s 14th Amendment – ratified in 1868 and upheld in a ruling in 1898 – as granting citizenship to all babies born in the country, regardless of parentage.
After the ruling, Trump urged Congress to adopt his citizenship restrictions through legislation.
In another decision Tuesday, the court ruled 6-3 to allow West Virginia and Idaho to ban transgender athletes from participating in female sports teams. Trump has been a vocal opponent of transgender athletes.
The conservative majority also sided with Vice President JD Vance and Republicans in striking down a law limiting how much political parties can spend in coordination with an election candidate.
Advocates for the winning side said they were surprised that the Supreme Court did not issue a more lopsided decision in favor of birthright citizenship. Six of nine justices agreed Trump’s executive order banning birthright citizenship was unlawful, and five of those said the order was unconstitutional.
“It just really shows the more rightward movement that the Supreme Court basically has been,” said Juan Proaño, the CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens. He called the vote count “a powerful statement” that is “very concerning from a long-term perspective.”