U.S. Supreme Court blocks Trump's bid to restrict birthright citizenship
The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down President Donald Trump's executive order seeking to limit birthright citizenship, ruling that children born in the United States to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily remain U.S. citizens under the Constitution, reports a Qazinform News Agency correspondent.
In a 6-3 decision, the court held that the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees citizenship to nearly everyone born on U.S. soil, reaffirming a long-standing constitutional interpretation.
“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights, to freely participate in our political community,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. “We keep that promise today.”
The ruling means Trump's executive order, signed on the first day of his second presidential term as part of a broader immigration crackdown, cannot take effect.
The majority concluded that the Fourteenth Amendment, together with the Supreme Court's 1898 ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, makes clear that children born in the United States, with limited exceptions such as those of foreign diplomats, are citizens at birth.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed that federal law grants birthright citizenship but argued the Constitution itself does not necessarily require it. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.
“The Court today takes the extraordinary step of holding facially unconstitutional the President's Order,” Thomas wrote, arguing the Fourteenth Amendment had been interpreted too broadly.
Trump criticized the ruling, calling it “too bad for our Country,” while suggesting Congress could address the issue through legislation. However, the majority based its decision on constitutional grounds, meaning any change would require a constitutional amendment rather than a new law.
According to the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University's Population Research Institute, more than 250,000 children born in the United States each year would have been affected by the executive order.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that U.S. President Donald Trump announced that work on the East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C., will begin on September 1, following a tour of the golf course, monuments and parks in the U.S. capital.
