US Supreme Court rejects Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship

The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down the attempts of President Donald Trump to curtail birthright citizenship, a rejection of his most aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration.

The court, in a 6-3 decision, struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order that would have undercut the concept that any person born on American soil is automatically a citizen.

The right to citizenship for all persons born or naturalised in the United States is enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the US constitution. But Trump had sought to limit it on the first day of his second term in office.

“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land’. We keep that promise today,” Chief Justice John Roberts said.

Recall that lower courts had already put Trump’s order on hold while the case was heard.

The President’s public attitude towards the court has soured since the tariffs ruling, even though he appointed three of its nine justices. 

The Republican has repeatedly lashed out at it and predicted the justices would hand him a loss on birthright citizenship.