WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday over whether President Trump's executive order denying U.S. citizenship to children born in the United States to people in the country illegally or temporarily complies with the 14th Amendment and an 86-year-old federal law. The case challenges the order titled "Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship," which Trump signed on his first day back in office on January 20, 2025.

The executive order's birthright citizenship restrictions would apply to people in the United States illegally and those legally present, including students and applicants for green cards. More than 250,000 babies born annually in the United States would be affected by the executive order, according to research by the Migration Policy Institute and the Pennsylvania State University Population Research Institute.

An Argentine immigrant in Florida obtained a U.S. passport for her newborn son last year. The woman came to the United States in 2016 on a visa to attend college and has applied for a green card. "It's funny because I actually booked him for his passport application appointment even before he was born," she said. "I would say that I am definitely relieved that at least he is protected."

Every court to consider the issue has found the executive order illegal and blocked it from taking effect. Lower-court rulings over the summer kept the executive order on hold and led to the current Supreme Court case. The first sentence of the 14th Amendment's Citizenship Clause grants citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof." Citizenship laws enacted in 1940 and 1952 used the same "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" phrase found in the 14th Amendment.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in court filings that "The court should use the case to set straight long-enduring misconceptions about the Constitution's meaning." "We have the president of the United States trying to radically reinterpret the definition of American citizenship," said Cecillia Wang, Legal Director.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by two other liberal justices, dissented from a Supreme Court decision by the court's six conservative justices that limited the use of nationwide injunctions in an earlier round of the birthright citizenship dispute. The Trump administration increased deportations of undocumented immigrants, reduced the annual refugee admissions cap, suspended asylum processing at the border, and removed temporary legal protections for people fleeing political and economic instability.