President Donald Trump praised the U.S. Supreme Court in June for a “monumental victory” when it rolled back nationwide injunctions towards his govt order trying to finish birthright citizenship.
Three months later, after two federal courts universally blocked the order once more on different grounds, Trump is asking the justices for a definitive judgment on his reinterpretation of greater than a century of settled authorized precedent.
In filings, reviewed by ABC Information Sunday however not but on the Supreme Court docket’s public docket, Solicitor Common John Sauer urges the justices to provide expedited consideration to Trump’s attraction and a call by subsequent summer season.
“The federal government has a compelling curiosity in making certain that American citizenship—the privilege that permits us to decide on our political leaders—is granted solely to those that are lawfully entitled to it,” Sauer wrote in a petition for writ of certiorari.
“The decrease court docket’s choices invalidated a coverage of prime significance to the President and his Administration in a fashion that undermines our border safety,” he wrote. “These choices confer, with out lawful justification, the privilege of American citizenship on tons of of hundreds of unqualified folks.”
Justices of the Supreme Court docket pose for his or her official picture on the Supreme Court docket in Washington, D.C., Oct. 7, 2022. (Seated from left) Affiliate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Affiliate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Affiliate Justice Samuel Alito and Affiliate Justice Elena Kagan, (Standing behind from left) Affiliate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Affiliate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Affiliate Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Affiliate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Olivier Douliery/AFP through Getty Photos
Courts and the federal government have lengthy interpreted the 14th Modification’s citizenship clause to use to anybody born within the U.S., whatever the immigration standing of a kid’s dad and mom.
The Amendment, ratified after the Civil Warfare, states that every one “individuals born or naturalized within the United States, and topic to the jurisdiction thereof, are residents of america and of the state whereby they reside.”
On his first day in workplace, Trump signed an govt order unilaterally declaring that solely newborns whose dad and mom have everlasting authorized standing are “topic to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. and subsequently eligible to be residents.
An estimated 255,000 kids are born on U.S. soil annually to a number of dad and mom with out American citizenship or everlasting authorized standing, in accordance with the Penn State Social Science Analysis Institute.
The administration just isn’t looking for to start imposing the manager order till the Supreme Court docket decides whether or not or to not take up the case and in the end render judgment — a call seemingly months away.
Folks maintain an indication as they take part in a protest exterior the US Supreme Court docket over President Donald Trump’s transfer to finish birthright citizenship because the court docket hears arguments over the order in Washington, DC, on Could 15, 2025. Trump issued an govt order on his first day in workplace looking for to restrict birthright citizenship for youngsters whose dad and mom are in america illegally or on short-term visas, however it has been blocked in a number of appellate courts. He appealed the case to the Supreme Court docket on March 13.
Drew Angerer/AFP through Getty Photos
“This govt order is illegitimate, full cease, and no quantity of maneuvering from the administration goes to alter that,” mentioned Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Undertaking, in an announcement. “We are going to proceed to make sure that nobody child’s citizenship is ever stripped away by this merciless and mindless order.”
A federal choose in New Hampshire in July ruled that Trump’s order plainly seems to violate the Structure and blocked enforcement of it in a class-action swimsuit that covers all kids who can be affected.
A separate ruling by a federal appeals court docket, additionally in July, blocked enforcement of the order nationwide, saying {that a} group of state plaintiffs may solely be protected against the citizenship restrictions in the event that they had been put universally on maintain.
The administration instructed the Supreme Court docket it seeks to attraction each instances.
The plaintiffs in every case — the ACLU and Washington State legal professional basic — offered ABC Information with copies of the federal government’s filings.
In 1898, the Supreme Court docket beforehand addressed the query of citizenship for youngsters born to non-citizens on U.S. soil, ruling within the landmark case U.S. v Wong Kim Ark that they’re People beneath the regulation.
President Donald Trump gestures, as he arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, September 26, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
“The [14th] Modification, in clear phrases and in manifest intent, consists of the youngsters born, throughout the territory of america, of all different individuals, of no matter race or colour, domiciled inside america,” wrote Justice Horace Grey for the 6-2 majority. “Each citizen or topic of one other nation, whereas domiciled right here, is throughout the allegiance and the safety, and consequently topic to the jurisdiction, of america.”
The Trump administration is trying to argue that there’s wiggle room in that precedent to nonetheless exclude from citizenship kids born to short-term guests and unlawful aliens.
“The reliance curiosity for all the people who find themselves already right here in america to whom birthright citizenship is a cherished proper, and for the nation prospectively – this might be an earthquake if the Supreme Court docket had been to rule in Trump’s favor,” mentioned Hofstra Legislation professor, constitutional scholar, and ABC Information authorized contributor James Pattern.
“I do not see that occuring,” Pattern mentioned. “On a political stage, nevertheless, Trump seemingly sees this as favorable floor within the sense that even when he loses on the regulation, even when he loses within the Supreme Court docket, a lot of his political allies would see this because the sort of pink meat political struggle that they relish, and he would like to run towards a loss.”
