The Supreme Court of the United States has upheld birthright citizenship, striking down President Donald Trump's executive order that had sought to limit the long-standing right for babies born on American soil. The decision, handed down on one of the final days of the court's term, represents a major blow to the president and to a central plank of his immigration agenda.
Trump had issued the order on the very first day of his second term, framing it as a necessary step to rein in illegal immigration. The directive sought to deny automatic citizenship to some children born in the country, depending on the immigration status of their parents, in what would have amounted to a dramatic reinterpretation of who is entitled to be an American.
The court, which has a six-to-three conservative majority, ruled by that same margin that birthright citizenship is a key constitutional right and could not be undone by executive action. In doing so, the justices preserved a principle that has been a cornerstone of American law for well over a century, rooted in the guarantee that those born on US soil are citizens.
The outcome carried enormous practical stakes. By some estimates, around a quarter of a million babies are born each year in the United States to parents who are not themselves citizens, and the order had raised the prospect that some of those infants could have been left without citizenship, and in certain cases potentially stateless if they could not claim another nationality.
For many, the ruling was about more than immigration numbers. Birthright citizenship has long been bound up with how the country understands itself, and opinion polling had suggested that a clear majority of Americans, somewhere in the region of two-thirds, wanted the principle to be upheld. The decision means that, for now, the established understanding of citizenship remains intact.
It is also the latest in a series of consequential rulings from the court as it closes out its term, and a reminder that its conservative majority has not moved in lockstep with the president. In other recent decisions the justices have at times sided against Trump's preferred positions, underlining that the term has produced a mixed picture rather than a uniform trend.
For the immigrant families who had watched the case anxiously for months, the ruling brings a measure of relief after a prolonged period of uncertainty. For the administration, it marks a significant setback on an issue the president had placed at the heart of his return to office, and one that is likely to keep the debate over immigration and citizenship firmly in the political spotlight.