US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship in blow to Trump

US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship in blow to Trump

The Supreme Court has ruled that babies born in the US have a constitutional right to citizenship, rejecting Donald Trump's bid to end the 150-year-old policy.

In a 6-3 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that children born in the US "to parents unlawfully or temporarily present" are "citizens at birth" under the 14th amendment.

President Trump had sought to limit the right through an executive order, arguing that the children of undocumented immigrants and some temporary visitors were not "subject to the jurisdiction thereof", and thus not eligible for birthright citizenship.

The ruling is a major setback for Trump's immigration agenda, and has been welcomed by civil rights groups.

"Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights - to freely participate in our political community," Justice Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. "We keep that promise today," the chief justice said.

Three of the court's nine justices dissented from the decision: Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito.

On X, White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller - a vocal proponent of stricter immigration rules - called it "one of the most destructive and outrageous decisions" in the Supreme Court's history.

"American citizenship is not the birthright of the world," he said. "No provision of the Constitution can be read to require our national self-obliteration."

But immigration advocates and detractors of the administration celebrated the ruling.

Dariely Rodriguez, chief counsel at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said that the ruling "solidifies what we have known to be true for over a hundred years".