Newsman: House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said he was “disappointed” with the court’s decision, raised the possibility of Congress pursuing a constitutional amendment. For that to pass, it would take a two-thirds supermajority in both chambers of Congress and ratification from three-quarters of the states.
President Trump has long argued that children born to unlawful immigrants and temporary visitors, like tourists and foreign students, do not qualify for citizenship under terms of the 14th Amendment, which was enacted after the Civil War to address the status of former slaves and their descendants.
Immigrant advocates and civil liberties groups challenging the policy change warned that it would harm hundreds of thousands of children born every year to non-citizen parents and create a bureaucratic nightmare for older Americans, who would no longer be able to prove citizenship simply with a birth certificate.
“The court’s decision reaffirms a fundamental American promise — if you are born here, you are a citizen. A president cannot change the Constitution by executive fiat,” said ACLU legal director Cecilia Wang, who argued the case before the court. “Our brave clients and our legal team stand with millions of people around our country who spoke up for one of our most cherished rights. The Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship stands strong.”
An estimated 255,000 children born every year to non-citizen parents would have lost legal status under the order, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Some may have faced difficulty establishing citizenship in any country, effectively being born as “stateless.”
Every lower court to have considered Trump’s unprecedented order deemed it unlawful, issuing orders to put it on hold. The high court’s decision preserves the status quo.
