President Donald Trump moved quickly to reframe his Supreme Court defeat on birthright citizenship as merely a temporary setback, declaring on Tuesday that Congress should immediately begin drafting legislation to accomplish what his executive order could not.
The Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling struck down Trump's signature immigration initiative, which would have limited citizenship at birth to children with at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. The order, signed on Trump's first day back in office, would have denied automatic citizenship to children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants, temporary visa holders, and other non-permanent residents.
"The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation," Trump posted on Truth Social. "Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my Complete and Total Support!"
The case held deep personal significance for the president. In April, Trump became the first sitting president to attend Supreme Court oral arguments, underscoring how central the issue had become to his political agenda.
Five justices ruled that the executive order conflicted with the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States. Brett Kavanaugh, nominated by Trump, agreed the order violated federal law but stopped short of saying it violated the Constitution, offering a narrow path Trump seized upon.
Yet the legislative route Trump is now promoting faces daunting obstacles. To permanently resolve the constitutional question, a constitutional amendment would likely be required, a threshold so high it appears virtually insurmountable. Senator John Cornyn of Texas noted that such an amendment would need approval from two-thirds of both chambers of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states.
Even a simple statute would struggle to pass. Republicans hold 53 Senate seats but would need 60 votes to overcome the filibuster, meaning they would lose without Democratic support. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has repeatedly told Trump that eliminating the filibuster is not viable either, with significant Republican opposition to that move.
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff who has shaped much of Trump's immigration policy, called the ruling "one of the most destructive and outrageous decisions in the long history of the Supreme Court." He argued that "American citizenship is not the birthright of the world."
Some Republicans vowed not to abandon the fight. Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri, a Trump ally, said he would introduce a constitutional amendment modeled on Trump's executive order. "Congress and the American people have the power to restore integrity and meaning to citizenship by limiting it to those who owe allegiance and loyalty to our nation," Schmitt stated.
Democrats across the ideological spectrum celebrated the ruling. Representatives Adriano Espaillat, Yvette Clarke, and Grace Meng, who chair the Congressional Hispanic, Black, and Asian Pacific American caucuses, released a joint statement rejecting what they called Trump's "dangerous and exclusionary vision of America." New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani praised the court's affirmation of "a promise that was written into our Constitution more than 150 years ago."
The Supreme Court's decision came as a new NBC News survey found the public divided on the issue. Fifty-four percent of respondents said being born in the United States is important to being "truly American," while 45% disagreed. Interestingly, survey respondents ranked other traits higher, including sharing American customs and believing in liberty and equality.
The birthright citizenship loss arrived as part of a mixed month for Trump at the Court. While justices struck down his tariffs in February and rejected his bid to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook this week, they also handed him a major victory Monday by overturning a 1935 precedent and expanding presidential power over independent federal agencies. Trump seized on that win to minimize the citizenship setback, calling the agency ruling "the biggest and most consequential" decision "by far."
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Trump's pivot to Congress is politically clever theater, but the numbers don't lie, and they show this going nowhere without a genuine bipartisan shift on immigration that simply isn't happening."
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