Today news from the Supreme Court: John Roberts led a 6-3 ruling that blocked Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants or people with temporary visas. The decision left the order unconstitutional and kept the long-standing rule in place for families covered by the case.
Roberts wrote that citizenship was, then as now, “il diritto ad avere diritti” and added, “Oggi manteniamo quella promessa.” The ruling relied on United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the 1898 precedent the Court said has protected citizenship on American soil for more than a century, with narrow exceptions such as children of foreign diplomats.
John Roberts and United States v. Wong Kim Ark
The majority rejected the White House argument that the XIV Emendamento was meant only to protect freed slaves after the Civil War. Roberts’ opinion said the constitutional guarantee reaches people born in the United States, and the Court treated Trump’s first-day order in the White House as incompatible with that reading.
Brett Kavanaugh agreed with the result but used a different reasoning, a split that still produced the same bottom line: the order could not take effect as written. For families tied to undocumented status or temporary visas, the ruling preserves automatic citizenship for children born on U.S. soil under the rule the Court said has governed for more than a century.
Donald Trump and Congresso
Trump answered on Truth Social with a direct challenge to the ruling: “La Corte Suprema ha confermato lo ius soli. È un male per il nostro Paese, ma possiamo facilmente rimediare con una legge approvata dal Congresso.” His response shifted the fight from the executive order to whether Congresso could pass a law that changes the rule.
That path is narrower than a presidential order. A law would have to clear Congresso and survive another constitutional test, because the Court did not treat citizenship as a policy choice that a president can revise alone. Trump’s post made clear he wants the argument moved back into the legislative arena instead of the courts.
California and Rob Bonta
Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, welcomed the ruling after California was among the states involved in the lawsuit. His response reflected the immediate practical effect of the decision: the challenged order stays blocked, and the constitutional rule remains the governing standard for now.
The same day, the Supreme Court also allowed bans on transgender athletes in women’s sports and removed a historic limit on coordinated spending between parties and candidates, but neither ruling changed the core point here. For birthright citizenship, the next test is political rather than judicial, and Trump has already put Congresso at the center of that fight.
