The US Supreme Court delivered a mixed verdict for Donald Trump on Tuesday, upholding birthright citizenship in a stinging defeat for the president while simultaneously backing state bans on transgender athletes in women's sports.
In a 6-3 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that children born in the US to parents “unlawfully or temporarily present” are “citizens at birth” under the 14th Amendment. The ruling struck down Trump’s executive order seeking to end the 150-year-old policy that grants citizenship to everyone born on American soil. “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights,” Roberts wrote. “The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land’. We keep that promise today.”
“US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, blocking Trump, while also backing transgender sports bans.”
Trump reacted on Truth Social, calling the decision “too bad” and vowing to continue fighting through legislation. “No long and unwieldy constitutional amendment is necessary,” he said. “Congress should today start work on ending expensive, and unfair to our country, birthright citizenship.”
Three conservative justices dissented. Clarence Thomas argued the amendment was being “repurposed for political projects”, writing that today’s opinion “devalues that citizenship”. Samuel Alito called it a “serious mistake” that “confers citizenship on virtually anyone who happens to be born in this country”. Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson took aim at Thomas directly, describing his “narrow vision” as bearing “little relationship to the history of its ratification”.
In a separate ruling, the Supreme Court also upheld state bans on transgender women competing in female school and college sports. All nine justices agreed the bans do not violate Title IX, but the conservative majority ruled they do not breach the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. “The Constitution and Title IX do not require an overhaul of women’s and girls’ sports throughout America,” wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Trump celebrated the decision as a “big win”. West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey said it gave states “the clarity and confidence to ensure fairness and safety for female athletes”. But the Human Rights Campaign condemned it. “This ruling is heartbreaking for transgender student athletes who are being forced to sit on the sidelines simply for who they are,” said president Kelley Robinson.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, learning of the birthright decision during a press conference, rolled his eyes, shook his head and groaned. “Oh dear,” he said before demurring he needed to read the opinion. In contrast, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries praised the outcome. Johnson later argued the ruling had been “grossly abused” and spoke of “birthing tourism”.
The decisions cap a term that saw the court shape key elements of Trump’s agenda, leaving the president with a partial victory but a significant constitutional rebuke.