By Tracy Waller, MPH, Esq.
Trump Birthright Citizenship Executive Order 2025 Faces Supreme Court Challenge
July 2025 Update:
In the final opinion issued on June 27, 2025, the Supreme Court voted in favor of the Trump administration (six justices voted for and three against). The Court did not decide whether President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship violated the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment or the Nationality Act, meaning it did not look at the issue of citizenship status or whether people are in the country legally, regardless of where they are born. Instead, the Court looked at a procedural court issue and decided whether courts have the equitable authority to issue universal injunctions.
Universal injunctions are injunctions that stop officials from applying the executive order to anyone they might apply to (not just the people arguing in court). The Supreme Court found that lower courts cannot issue universal injunctions because they are too broad. They should apply only to the plaintiffs in each case, not to all individuals in similar situations. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower court to reassess the case with narrower relief requirements.
What Does This Mean?
Moving forward, President Trump (and future presidents) will have a lot more power with executive orders, which could arguably weaken the current checks and balances system in place. Individual plaintiffs may slow down the courts, since many courts will no longer be able to issue broad injunctions that apply to groups of plaintiffs. In addition, there may be different outcomes in different parts of the country. There will also be many people that will likely not have the resources or knowledge to bring suits to challenge executive orders that affect them. While the case is still moving through the courts, an agency may be able to resume enforcing an executive order against people who are not part of the litigation (lawsuit).
Definitions:
- Agency: A federal agency is a part of the U.S. government that is responsible for carrying out specific laws or programs.
- Plaintiff: The person or group who starts a lawsuit by going to court and saying that someone else did something wrong or caused them harm.
- Procedural court issue: A problem or question about how a court case is handled, rather than about the actual facts or laws involved in the case.
Universal injunctions: Injunctions that stop officials from applying the executive order to anyone they might apply to, not just the people arguing in court.
Original Post from May 19, 2025:
On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order titled, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.” Under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, when a person is born in the United States, they are a citizen of the U.S. It does not matter whether their parents are here legally or not. Under the Trump Birthright Citizenship executive order issued on January 20, 2025, a person born in the U.S. may not be able to stay here if their parents did not meet certain criteria.
Executive orders are supposed to be supported by the Constitution or laws that have been passed by Congress. There have been many lawsuits filed across the country against the executive order challenging whether it was legal for President Trump to issue it. The case has now reached the Supreme Court of the United States.
In 1898, the Supreme Court confirmed that a child born from parents who were not in the U.S. legally was still a U.S. citizen. On February 5, 2025, Amy Howe, an executive and frequent author at SCOTUSblog, wrote about the history of birthright citizenship in the Supreme Court in a February 5 SCOTUSblog post. Today, Thursday, May 15, 2025, the Supreme Court heard a case challenging President Trump’s January 20, 2025 executive order- this time, more than 125 years after it originally decided on the issue.
When several lawsuits are filed related to the same subject- and against the same person, they can be combined. For this Supreme Court case, these three cases have been consolidated into one for the May 15 argument.
The arguments are both technical and broad. The Trump administration is arguing whether the lower courts can issue universal injunctions (or broad holds) and about birthright citizenship. They are also arguing that the people bringing the case are not allowed to bring the case because of where they live (something called standing).
And of course, they are arguing about birthright citizenship and that being born somewhere does not give you automatic citizenship in the U.S.. The Trump administration says that it should be subject to the jurisdiction in which you are born.
The Supreme Court should make a decision on the case by June 20, 2025.
- The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is found in Title 8 of the United States Code (U.S.C). It includes immigration status and U.S. citizenship matters. It also includes the number of immigrants allowed to enter the country each year.
