Trump Administration Plans To Take Birthright Citizenship Fight To Supreme Court

The Trump administration’s Department of Justice is planning to take its fight on birthright citizenship all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) after a federal judge struck down the president’s recent executive order limiting the practice, the Daily Caller has learned.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20, his first day in office, ending birthright citizenship for illegal aliens and immigrants with only temporary legal status. The order was immediately challenged by multiple state attorneys general and U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, blocked it after a hearing Thursday. (RELATED: Reagan-Appointed Judge Blocks Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Executive Order)

“I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar could state unequivocally that is a constitutional order,” Coughenour said.

🚨BREAKING🚨 John C. Coughenour, an 83-year-old federal judge in Seattle, has BLOCKED Trump’s order on birthright citizenship pic.twitter.com/38f2c15oGS

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 23, 2025

The Trump administration intends to continue to fight for the order through legal channels and believes it will find its way to SCOTUS, DOJ officials told the Caller.

“The Department of Justice will vigorously defend President Trump’s EO, which correctly interprets the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. We look forward to presenting a full merits argument to the Court and to the American people, who are desperate to see our Nation’s laws enforced,” a Department of Justice spokesperson said.

The DOJ is also confident they will ultimately prevail in court.

“We think we have very good arguments that correctly interpret the 14th Amendment of the Constitution,” a senior DOJ official asserted.

Trump officials have emphasized that the original intention of the 14th Amendment, which establishes birthright citizenship as a constitutional right, was to grant citizenship to freed black slaves and not to the children of temporary immigrants, — legal or illegal — born on American soil. (RELATED: WOLD: Liberal Lawyers Are Wrong — Trump Can, And Should, End Birthright Citizenship)

The clause being debated is the first sentence of the 14th Amendment, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” In more modern American history, “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” has been interpreted to mean anyone who has to abide by the laws of the United States. The Supreme Court decided in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) that a son of two Chinese nationals who were legal residents in the U.S. — but not eligible for citizenship — should be considered a US citizen.

The Trump administration is hopeful that the conservative-majority court will accept a slightly narrower interpretation — what they contend is the “correct interpretation” — supported by the 1866 Civil Rights Act, which says, “all persons born in the United States, and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.” This would exclude individuals who are claimed as citizens of another country from being granted birthright citizenship. Under Trump’s executive order, only children who are born to at least one American citizen or a lawful permanent resident would qualify for automatic citizenship.

RIO GRANDE CITY, TX – DECEMBER 07: An immigrant from El Salvador, seven months pregnant, she said, stands next to a U.S. Border Patrol truck after she and others turned themselves in to border agents on December 7, 2015 near Rio Grande City, Texas. Many pregnant women, according to Border Patrol agents, cross illegally into the U.S. late into their terms with the intention of birthing their babies in the United States. All people born in the U.S. are American Citizens, according to the U.S. constitution. Border Patrol agents continue to detain hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants trying to avoid capture after crossing into the United States, even as migrant families and unaccompanied minors from Central America cross and turn themselves in to the Border Patrol to seek asylum. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

A number of Supreme Court justices, including Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts, have never weighed in publicly on the jurisdiction question of birthright citizenship.

There is a robust “birth tourism” industry in the United States as foreign nationals routinely travel to the country in the hopes of getting citizenship for their newborn children. The Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank advocating for reducing immigration, estimated in 2019 that there about 72,000 births annually to tourists and individuals on guest worker, student or other long-term visas. About a quarter of a million babies were born to illegal immigrants in 2016, according to Pew Research.

Approximately 1.3. million adults born to illegal immigrants in the U.S. lived in a household with someone unlawfully residing in the country in 2022, Pew Research found. Illegal immigrants living in the U.S. had around 4.4. million U.S. born minor children living in their households that year. It’s unclear how many “anchor babies,” as they are known colloquially, were born each year in the U.S. during the Biden administration.

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