Overview
- President Trump issued a January 2025 executive order seeking to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants and certain temporary visitors.
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled the order unconstitutional, and trial courts had already put it on hold.
- The Supreme Court’s review sets up a definitive ruling expected by the end of its term next summer.
- The administration urges a narrow reading of “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” to exclude children of parents who are unlawfully present or only temporarily in the country.
- Critics point to the 14th Amendment’s plain text, the 1898 Wong Kim Ark precedent, and long-standing jus soli practice rooted in English common law.