The United States Supreme Court has rejected President Donald Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship, dealing a major blow to one of his administration’s toughest immigration policies.
In a 6-3 ruling delivered on Tuesday, the court struck down Trump’s executive order that sought to limit the long-standing constitutional principle that anyone born on American soil automatically becomes a US citizen.
Birthright citizenship is guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which grants citizenship to all persons born or naturalised in the United States. Trump had moved to restrict that right on the first day of his second term in office.
Delivering the court’s position, John Roberts reaffirmed the constitutional protection of birthright citizenship.
“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land’. We keep that promise today,” Roberts said.
Before the Supreme Court’s ruling, lower courts had already suspended Trump’s executive order while legal challenges were being considered.
Trump’s relationship with the Supreme Court has become increasingly strained following recent legal setbacks, despite the fact that he appointed three of its nine justices. The Republican president had repeatedly criticised the court and publicly predicted it would rule against him on the birthright citizenship case.
