The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected President Donald Trump’s effort to limit birthright citizenship, ruling that children born in the United States remain citizens regardless of their parents’ immigration status or whether they are in the country temporarily.

Background

In a 6-3 decision, the court struck down Trump’s executive order, which sought to deny automatic U.S. citizenship to children born to parents who entered the country illegally or who were legally present on temporary visas.

The executive order, signed on Trump’s first day back in office, never took effect after multiple lower courts blocked it as unconstitutional.

Constitutional Basis

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said the Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to nearly everyone born on U.S. soil. The 14th Amendment states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

The court concluded that the amendment, along with longstanding federal law, protects birthright citizenship except in limited circumstances, such as children born to foreign diplomats.

Trump’s administration argued that children born to noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore are not entitled to automatic citizenship. Every lower court that reviewed the executive order rejected that interpretation before the Supreme Court’s decision.

The ruling reaffirmed more than a century of legal precedent, including the Supreme Court’s landmark 1898 decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark.

Impact

Researchers with the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University’s Population Research Institute estimated that more than 250,000 babies born in the United States each year would have been affected by the executive order.

Three justices — Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas — dissented, saying they would have allowed the administration’s restrictions to take effect.

Original reporting: The Dallas Express — read the source article.