Today the U.S. Supreme Court issued a significant decision reaffirming the longstanding constitutional principle of birthright citizenship. In a 6-3 ruling, the Court held that children born in the United States are U.S. citizens at birth, consistent with the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and more than a century of Supreme Court precedent. The Administration’s January 20, 2025 Executive Order to the contrary is unconstitutional.
The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868 following the Civil War, provides that “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” Since the Court’s landmark decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) (notably, a case brought by a San Francisco-born U.S. citizen with Chinese immigrant parents), that language has been understood to confer citizenship on nearly all individuals born on U.S. soil, with only limited, well-established exceptions, such as children born to accredited foreign diplomats.
The Court’s decision preserves the longstanding interpretation of the Citizenship Clause and confirms that birthright citizenship cannot be narrowed through executive action. For employers, families, and individuals, the ruling provides continued certainty regarding the citizenship status of children born in the United States and maintains a constitutional framework that has remained in place for more than 150 years.
Claire Pratt © Jewell Stewart Pratt Beckerson & Carr PC 2026
