WASHINGTON (AP) — A legal battle is underway over President Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to deny U.S. citizenship to children born in the United States to people who are in the country illegally or temporarily, with the Supreme Court hearing arguments on the matter Wednesday.
Trump’s Executive Order and the 14th Amendment
The case centers on Trump’s order, signed on Jan. 20, 2025, and its compatibility with the post-Civil War 14th Amendment and an 86-year-old federal law generally understood to grant citizenship to all born in the U.S., with exceptions for children of foreign diplomats and invading armies. Every court to have reviewed the order has deemed it illegal and prevented its implementation.
The executive order, titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” argues that individuals not legally in the country or those present temporarily are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States, and therefore their U.S.-born children are not entitled to citizenship. Solicitor General D. John Sauer has argued the court should clarify what he called “long-enduring misconceptions about the Constitution’s meaning.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor previously called the administration’s defense of the order “an impossible task” given the Constitution’s text, history, court precedents, federal law, and executive branch practice.
The challenge to Trump’s order comes from New Hampshire, where U.S. District Judge Joseph N. LaPlante ruled the order “likely violates” both the Constitution and federal law.
Impact and Opposition
More than one-quarter of a million babies born in the U.S. each year could be affected by the executive order, according to research by the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University’s Population Research Institute. The restrictions would apply not only to those in the country illegally but also to individuals legally present, including students and applicants for permanent resident status.
Opponents of the order, including the American Civil Liberties Union, argue that the Trump administration is attempting a radical reinterpretation of American citizenship. Cecillia Wang, the ACLU’s legal director, stated, “We have the president of the United States trying to radically reinterpret the definition of American citizenship.”
One Argentine woman, who came to the U.S. on a visa in 2016 and has applied for a green card, recounted her relief that her son, born last year, already has a U.S. passport. She spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, fearing retribution from the administration.
The woman stated that despite political challenges, the U.S. “gave me the most beautiful thing I have today, which is my family.”
The case is part of the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on immigration, which has included increased deportations, reduced refugee admissions, suspension of asylum at the border, and the removal of temporary legal protections for those fleeing instability.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.
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