The Supreme Court agreed Dec. 5 to review whether President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship is constitutional, taking up a major case that could reshape long-standing interpretations of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Trump’s order, signed on his first day back in office, halts automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S. to non-citizens, unless at least one parent is a citizen or a lawful permanent resident.
The policy has been frozen for months after it drew a wave of lawsuits, and several courts ruled that it conflicts with the Fourteenth Amendment, which has long been interpreted to grant automatic citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil.
The amendment’s citizenship clause states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
The Trump administration argues courts have misread that language for years, saying the common interpretation extends far beyond the amendment’s original purpose.
U.S. Solicitor General John D. Sauer wrote in court documents that the amendment was intended to guarantee citizenship to formerly enslaved black Americans and their children — not to the children of people who entered the country illegally or who are in the U.S. temporarily.
Sauer contends that the amendment’s phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” excludes children whose parents lack legal status because those parents do not owe full political allegiance to the U.S.
“Permitting illegal aliens to obtain that privilege for their children through wrongdoing — cutting ahead of those who seek entry and citizenship through lawful means — degrades that gift and dilutes its meaning,” he wrote.
In an unsigned order, the Supreme Court agreed to review a challenge brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other plaintiffs, who include a woman who was pregnant when the case began and the parents of two U.S.-born infants. They argue the Supreme Court already settled the scope of the citizenship clause in its 1898 ruling United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which held that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees citizenship to those born in the country, “including all children here born of resident aliens.”
This marks the second time the Supreme Court has engaged with litigation over Trump’s birthright order. In June, the justices handed the Trump administration a procedural victory by limiting lower courts’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions on the order.
The Supreme Court justices will likely hear arguments later this year, and a ruling could arrive by summer 2026.
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