The U.S. Supreme Court of the United States has scheduled oral arguments for May 15, 2025, in a case arising from Trump’s executive order that seeks to reinterpret the Citizenship Clause of the American Civil War-era Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to deny automatic U.S. citizenship to children born in the country to parents who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.
The order, signed on January 20, 2025, commands federal agencies to refuse to recognize citizenship for children born under certain conditions—specifically when one or both parents were not lawfully present or were in the U.S. temporarily. The administration argues that such children are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States, a phrase in the 14th Amendment, and thus birthright citizenship should not apply.
Trump was told that the SCOTUS would start hearing oral arguments on his Birthright Citizenship case.
"They use it for people who come into our country… and all of a sudden they become citizens."
Trump is correct. The left has distorted it to help facilitate their mass… pic.twitter.com/Ny3QRhkxI8
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) April 17, 2025
At the same time, the legal framework is more complicated: the Court is primarily addressing the question of whether lower federal courts exceeded their authority by issuing nationwide injunctions blocking the policy (rather than immediately ruling on the constitutionality of the order itself). Lower courts in Washington, Massachusetts and Maryland had blocked the order’s enforcement nationwide, and the administration asked the Court to lift those injunctions. The Supreme Court so far has maintained the injunctions while it considers the matter.
In sum: the case presents two major issues—(1) whether children born in the U.S. to non-citizen parents qualify for citizenship under the 14th Amendment, and (2) whether federal judges may issue nationwide injunctions blocking executive policies. With oral arguments set for May, the decision could reshape both immigration law and the balance of powers between the executive and judiciary.
