Supreme Court Halts Trump’s Attempt
to Limit Birthright Citizenship

by enlace latino NC

Picture
Hannah Liu, 26, of Washington, holds up a sign in support of birthright citizenship, May 15, 2025, outside of the Supreme Court in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

This decision means that all children born in the United States, regardless of whether their parents are documented or not, are U.S. citizens.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to limit birthright citizenship for children of immigrants in a 6-3 vote, stating the Fourteenth Amendment protects that right. 
This decision means that all children born in the United States, regardless of whether their parents are documented or not, are U.S. citizens. 

“Citizenship, then and now, is the right to have rights: to participate freely in our political community. The drafters of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every person born free on this earth,’” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote on behalf of the Court, citing the congressional debate over the amendment. “Today we keep that promise,” he said. 
 
Trump’s executive order 
Trump’s executive order on Jan. 20, 2025, would upend the long-held view that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1868, and federal law since 1940 grant citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, with limited exceptions for children of foreign diplomats and those born of a foreign occupying force. 
The 14th Amendment sought to ensure that Black people, including former slaves, had citizenship, although the Citizenship Clause is more broadly worded. “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to its jurisdiction, are citizens of the United States and of the State in which they reside,” the text says. 
 
The demand 
In June 2025, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) joined the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other organizations to file Barbara v. Trump, a class action lawsuit representing the large number of people whose citizenship is at risk due to the president’s executive order on birthright citizenship. 
This case seeks to protect all families in the country by filling gaps that could be left by existing litigation. 
The lawsuit contends that the Trump administration’s issuance of that executive order violates the Constitution, contradicts the intent of Congress, and ignores longstanding Supreme Court precedent. In addition, it has a national scope. 
 
The blocking of the executive order 
On July 10, 2025, a federal court in New Hampshire blocked Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship and certified a nationwide class action lawsuit, which protects the citizenship rights of all children born on U.S. soil. 
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara on April 1. 
The plaintiffs filed arguments to challenge the administration’s efforts to eliminate birthright citizenship, the legal principle guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment that states that babies born in the United States are U.S. citizens. 
The plaintiffs argued that Trump’s executive order contradicts the Constitution, Supreme Court precedent, a law passed by Congress, and fundamental U.S. values.  
 
*This is a developing news story ​