WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� A divided on Tuesday upheld a broad conception of , rejecting President Donald Trump鈥檚 executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.
By a 6-3 vote, the court struck down Trump鈥檚 order. A bare majority of five justices, in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, held that the long-settled understanding of , adopted after the Civil War, makes a citizen of anyone born in the country, with very limited exceptions,
鈥淐itizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights鈥攖o freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to 鈥榚very free-born person in this land,鈥欌�� Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, citing congressional debate over the amendment, 鈥淲e keep that promise today.鈥�
A sixth justice, Brett Kavanaugh, disagreed about the constitutional ruling, but pointed to a federal law that he said broadly conveys birthright citizenship.
Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas would have upheld Trump鈥檚 proposed restrictions.
鈥淭he Court today takes the extraordinary step of holding facially unconstitutional the President鈥檚 Order excluding from citizenship the children of foreign temporary visitors and illegal aliens,鈥� Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a 91-page dissent, more than three times as long as Roberts’ opinion. 鈥淚n doing so, the Court adds to the sad history of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed and understood to secure equal rights for the freed blacks but has instead been repurposed for political projects that the Reconstruction Congress did not support.鈥�
The Republican president’s restrictions had been blocked by several lower courts and had not taken effect anywhere in the U.S.
Trump said the decision was 鈥渢oo bad for our Country鈥� and wrongly suggested that Congress could 鈥渆asily鈥� address it with legislation. The majority decision rests on constitutional grounds. It would take an amendment to overcome the decision.
During arguments in April, both conservative and liberal justices questioned the order鈥檚 legality in a momentous case that was magnified by .
The case framed another test of Trump鈥檚 assertions of executive power that defy long-standing precedent for a court with a conservative majority and a robust view of presidential power that has largely ruled in his favor. In the notable exceptions when the court has not, Trump has responded with starkly personal criticisms of the justices.
The justices ruled on Trump鈥檚 appeal of a lower-court ruling from New Hampshire that struck down .
, which Trump signed on the first day of his second term, is part of his administration鈥檚 broad .
Birthright citizenship was the first Trump immigration-related policy to reach the court for a final ruling. The justices previously Trump had imposed under an emergency powers law that had never been used that way.
Trump reacted furiously to the late February tariffs decision, saying he was who ruled against him and calling them unpatriotic.
He also seemed to recognize the court was likely to rule against him on birthright citizenship, too, using his Truth Social platform to criticize 鈥渄umb judges and justices鈥� and wealthy pregnant women from China and elsewhere who come to the U.S. to give birth so their newborns will have American citizenship.
Trump鈥檚 order would have upended widely held views that confers citizenship on everyone born in the U.S., excluding only the children of foreign diplomats and those born to a foreign occupying force.
The amendment was intended to ensure that Black people, including former slaves, had citizenship, though the Citizenship Clause is written more broadly. 鈥淎ll 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,鈥� it reads.
In a series of decisions, lower courts have struck down Trump’s executive order as illegal. The decisions have invoked the high court鈥檚 1898 ruling in , which held that the U.S.-born child of Chinese nationals was a citizen.
Roberts, joined by Justice Amy Coney Barrett and the three liberal justices, said the amendment’s language, the historical context and the 1898 case make clear that children born to parents illegally or temporarily in the U.S. 鈥渁re citizens at birth.鈥�
But there was only a bare majority of five justices on the constitutional question.
Kavanaugh sided with the majority because of a federal law that makes those children citizens. But he joined the dissenters in finding that Trump’s order does not violate the Constitution. His view would enable a future Congress to change the law to restrict birthright citizenship.
The Trump administration had argued that the common view of citizenship is wrong, asserting that children of noncitizens are not 鈥渟ubject to the jurisdiction鈥� of the United States and therefore are not entitled to citizenship.
More than one-quarter of a million babies born in the U.S. each year would have been affected by the executive order, according to research by the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University鈥檚 Population Research Institute.
While Trump has largely focused on illegal immigration in his rhetoric and actions, the birthright citizenship restrictions also would have applied to people who are legally in the United States, including students and applicants for green cards, or permanent resident status.
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