The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Tuesday to strike down President Donald Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship, upholding the 14th Amendment guarantee. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that the amendment's promise extends to "every free-born person in this land."
The U.S. Supreme Court dealt President Donald Trump a major legal and political defeat on Tuesday, striking down his executive order that sought to end birthright citizenship for children born on American soil.
In a narrow 5-4 ruling, the majority — composed of the court's liberal justices joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh — held that the 14th Amendment's Citizenship Clause, ratified in 1868, guarantees citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" and cannot be rescinded by executive action. Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the majority: "The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to 'every free-born person in this land.' We keep that promise today."
Justice Kavanaugh, one of three Trump-appointed justices on the court, sided with the majority but wrote separately to note that even under the president's legal theory, the longstanding federal statute codifying birthright citizenship would independently bar the executive order.
The ruling immediately drew a sharp response from Vice President JD Vance, who called it "preposterous" in an overnight statement, and from President Trump himself, who urged Congress to pass legislation abolishing the policy. The White House has signaled it will pursue legislative and possibly further legal avenues to challenge the status quo, though the court's constitutional holding makes any statutory reversal extremely difficult.
As The Zioneer reported on June 30, the ruling marks the second consecutive Supreme Court decision in as many days — alongside the court's ban on transgender athletes in women's sports — that has sharply divided the 5-4 court on a high-profile cultural and legal issue.
2 developments
- DevelopingUS Supreme Court expected to weigh in on Trump bid to end birthright citizenship
- StrongTrump urges Congress to abolish birthright citizenship via legislation
- DevelopingVance calls birthright citizenship ruling 'preposterous,' says concept hanging by a thread after Supreme Court 5-4 decision
- DevelopingSupreme Court upholds Trump's termination of TPS for Haitians and Syrians
Source and signal
- Internal intake