President Donald Trump attended oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump becomes the first sitting president to do so. The justices are weighing his January 2025 executive order to end automatic birthright citizenship. The issue is whether this policy violates the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and federal statute.
The Supreme Court hearing, held in Washington, D.C., drew the key figures: Solicitor General D. John Sauer defended the administration, while American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Cecillia Wang challenged the order. Trump himself sat in the courtroom, telling reporters that he planned to attend, and quipped, “I’m going… I think so, I do believe.”
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The order, issued on the first day of Trump’s second term, would strip citizenship from U.S.-born children of parents “in the United States illegally or temporarily.” Lower courts have unanimously blocked the policy, invoking the century-old precedent Wong Kim Ark, which held that virtually all U.S.-born children are citizens.
The 14th Amendment guarantees that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens.” Historically, this was intended to secure citizenship for former slaves, but the text has been read broadly. Trump’s order challenges that interpretation. His administration argues that the clause excludes children of noncitizens and that unfettered jus soli is an outlier globally.
In the hearing, Justice Department lawyers called unrestricted birthright citizenship a “powerful pull factor for illegal immigration” and said it “demeans the priceless and profound gift of American citizenship.”
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Opponents counter that existing law and precedent mandate citizenship for essentially all born here. They note that about 250,000 U.S.-born infants each year would lose citizenship under the order. ACLU’s Wang urged the justices not to let the president “radically reinterpret the definition of American citizenship.”
Justices on both ends of the ideological spectrum pressed tough questions. Chief Justice Roberts quizzed Sauer about narrowing “subject to the jurisdiction” to include millions of illegal immigrants’ children, calling that leap “quirky.” Justice Sotomayor noted the Congressional debate where lawmakers said all born on U.S. soil would be citizens. Observers say the 6–3 conservative court faces an uphill battle against entrenched precedent. A final decision is expected by early summer.