The Supreme Court announced Thursday that, in a rare move, it will hear oral arguments in May regarding President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order, following an emergency request from the administration.
On his first day in office in January, Trump issued an executive order interpreting the language of the 14th Amendment, which states only those born to parents “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States are citizens.
The impact would be that when children are born to people who are not legal residents, the children are not U.S. citizens.
The 14th Amendment was adopted in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War and was intended to make clear that former slaves were both citizens of the U.S. and the state where they resided.
In the decades since, the Amendment has been interpreted broadly to mean that anyone born on U.S. soil is an American citizen automatically, but the Supreme Court has not ruled on the matter.
In 1895, the Court held that children born to legal resident aliens are American citizens.
CBS News reported that following Trump’s January executive order, more than half a dozen lawsuits were filed in courts around the country, including federal district courts in Washington, Maryland, and Massachusetts.
Those lower courts blocked the implementation of the order, and then federal appeals courts in San Francisco, Boston, and Richmond, Virginia, upheld their rulings.
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“The Justice Department filed emergency appeals of the three decisions with the Supreme Court in mid-March and asked it to limit enforcement of the birthright citizenship order to 28 states and individuals who are not involved in the ongoing cases,” CBS News said.
SCOTUS issued an order on Thursday calling for oral arguments in the case on May 15. A May hearing — so late in the term, which ends in June — is rare, The Hill noted.
BREAKING: Supreme Court says it will hold oral arguments on Trump’s birthright citizenship restrictions on May 15. #SCOTUS pic.twitter.com/t5ZKdo48kj
— Jimmy Hoover (@JimmyHooverDC) April 17, 2025
During the presidential campaign, Trump said, “Constitutional scholars have shown for decades that granting automatic citizenship to the children of illegal aliens born in the United States is based on a patently incorrect interpretation of the 14th Amendment.”
“The framers of the 14th Amendment made clear that ‘persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens [or] who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers’ are not ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the U.S.,” he added.
After learning of the Supreme Court’s decision to take up the matter, Trump told reporters at the White House, “I am so happy. I think the case has been so misunderstood.”
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
He argued that the 14th Amendment is not about people just being able to come into the country, whether as tourists or illegal immigrants, and have children who are then granted U.S. citizenship.
“That is all about slavery. And even look at the dates in which [the amendment] was signed. It was right in that era … right after the Civil War,” Trump said.
“If you look at it that way, the case is an easy case to win.”
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