The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship, invalidating Trump's executive order in a decision written by Chief Justice Roberts.
The Supreme Court on June 30, 2026, struck down President Trump's executive order restricting birthright citizenship, holding in a 6-3 decision that the 14th Amendment guarantees automatic citizenship to virtually all children born on U.S. soil [1]. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Amy Coney Barrett [1]. Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred in the judgment but on narrower grounds, declining to join the majority opinion in full [2]. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented [1].
The case, Trump v. Barbara, reached the Court after the administration's Day-One executive order failed at every level of the federal judiciary [2]. No lower court upheld the order, and it never took effect [2]. The government was represented by Solicitor General John Sauer; the ACLU's Cecillia Wang argued on behalf of the challengers [3]. The ruling comes at the close of the Court's October 2025 term, one of the most closely watched constitutional terms in recent memory [1].
The decision resolves a direct clash between executive action and the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, which provides that all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens [1]. The majority opinion, as written by Roberts, closes off the executive-order pathway entirely as a vehicle for narrowing birthright citizenship, a proposition the administration had argued was permissible through the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" [2]. Kavanaugh's concurrence suggests at least one member of the majority prefers leaving some constitutional questions for another day, but his vote still produces the same practical outcome: the order is void [2].
The ruling does not foreclose future congressional action. Advocates on both sides have long debated whether Congress could, by statute, redefine the scope of birthright citizenship without a constitutional amendment, a question this decision does not reach [2]. The ACLU characterized the outcome as a vindication of constitutional text and longstanding precedent [3]. The administration had no immediate avenue for further appellate review after a Supreme Court ruling on a constitutional question of this kind. Litigation over related immigration enforcement measures continues in lower courts.