Donald Trump on January 20, 2025: On his first day in office, the US President also signed a decree on US citizenship.Image: Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA
Babies born in America will continue to automatically receive US citizenship. The Supreme Court decided this on Tuesday. There is strong criticism in the right-wing camp.
Jul 1, 2026, 12:53 amJul 1, 2026, 12:53 am
In a landmark ruling on Tuesday, the Supreme Court in Washington decided not to change the current practice of granting US citizenship. This is a defeat for President Trump.
Three questions and answers about the important judgment.
What was the starting point?
Every child born in the USA automatically receives citizenship – regardless of whether the mother or father is in the country legally. This principle, known in Latin as “jus soli,” has been in effect since 1868. And America is by far the largest and wealthiest of the approximately 35 countries that have this practice.
Donald Trump’s Republicans have long claimed that “jus soli” is being abused for so-called birth tourism. Foreigners would specifically travel to the USA so that their children would later be entitled to a US passport.
In one of his first official acts, the US President issued a decree in January 2025 announcing the end of this rule. From now on, Trump decreed, only the children of citizens should receive American citizenship. Nationwide, an estimated quarter of a million births per year would have been affected by this order.
Trump is against “birth tourism”.Image: Samuel Corum
What did the court decide?
Opponents of the decree immediately filed lawsuits. The tough legal battle ended on Tuesday before the Supreme Court in Washington. By a vote of six to three, the country’s top judges ruled that Trump’s decree was illegal. Five justices found Trump’s order violated the Constitution.
Even after multiple readings of historical documents from the 19th century, there is no reason to reinterpret the relevant passage in the 14th Amendment, wrote Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. After the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, Congress made a promise that from now on all people born in the USA would be free. “We are sticking to that promise today,” said Roberts.
What happens next?
This defeat comes as no surprise to the president. For weeks he has been indicating on his Internet service Truth Social that he was expecting dissidents in the ranks of the conservative court majority. In addition to John Roberts, Judge Amy Barrett, who owes Trump her appointment to the Supreme Court, also dropped out on Tuesday.
Republicans in Congress will now try to change the relevant passage in the Constitution. Or they could pass legislation in the Senate and House of Representatives that would reinterpret the 14th Amendment. However, both options have little chance of success.
That won’t stop the right-wing camp from sharply criticizing the court’s ruling. A representative of the Heritage Foundation think tank spoke on Tuesday of a “tremendous betrayal of the republic”. And Justice Samuel Alito said in his dissent: “The court made a serious mistake.” American citizenship would be devalued if it were also given to people who owed no loyalty to the USA. (schweiztoday.ch)