President Donald Trump left the oral arguments early on Wednesday as the Supreme Court considered his birthright citizenship executive order, and soon thereafter posted a fiery message on social media.
Trump was the first sitting U.S. president to attend oral arguments at the nation’s highest court.
Newsweek reported that Trump spent over an hour listening as Solicitor General John Sauer presented the administration’s argument.
The president then left shortly after ACLU attorney Cecillia Wang began to make her case for keeping the current policy.
After leaving the Court, Trump posted on Truth Social, “We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship!”
Donald J. Trump Truth Social Post 12:20 PM EST 04.01.26
We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow “Birthright” Citizenship! President DONALD J. TRUMP
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) April 1, 2026
On the day he took office in January 2025, Trump issued an executive order directing that only children born to parents “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States are citizens, quoting from the Fourteenth Amendment.
The impact would be that when children are born to people who are not legal residents, they are not U.S. citizens.
The Fourteenth Amendment reads, in part, “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.”
HISTORIC: President Donald J. Trump attends U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments on birthright citizenship, the first sitting president ever to do so. pic.twitter.com/EKdtcekbBb
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 1, 2026
Several lawsuits were filed around the country seeking to block the implementation of Trump’s order. Federal district courts issued injunctions putting it on hold, and then federal appeals courts in San Francisco, Boston, and Richmond, Virginia, upheld their decisions.
Some legal scholars have argued that the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” means the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified after the Civil War in 1868, only grants citizenship to babies born to citizens and lawful, permanent U.S. residents, i.e., green card holders. That is the position the Trump administration has taken.
Sauer said in his opening statement before the Supreme Court, “The citizenship clause was adopted just after the Civil War to grant citizenship to the newly freed slaves and their children, whose allegiance to the United States had been established by generations to domicile here.”
“It did not grant citizenship to the children of temporary visitors or illegal aliens, who have no such allegiance,” he contended.
D. John Sauer delivers opening arguments before the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Trump v. Barbara. pic.twitter.com/83xoizz0qf
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 1, 2026
Sauer pointed out that Sen. Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, then chairman of the Judiciary Committee, played a central role in crafting the Fourteenth Amendment.
“Sen. Trumbull explained that ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ in the clause means ‘not owing allegiance to anybody else,’” Sauer said.
“The clause thus does not extend citizenship to the children of temporary visa holders or illegal aliens. Unlike the newly freed slaves, those visitors lacked direct and immediate allegiance to the United States,” he added.
“Unrestricted birthright citizenship contradicts the practice of the overwhelming majority of modern nations,” Sauer stated. “It operates as a powerful ‘pull factor’ for illegal immigration, and rewards illegal aliens who not only violate the immigration laws, but also jump in front of those who follow the rules.”
According to the Pew Research Center, 33 nations, including the U.S., have birthright citizenship policies. Most of them are in the Western Hemisphere, such as Canada and Mexico, while European nations and others around the world do not have the policy.
Sauer went on to note that the current interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment has “spawned a spralling industry of birth tourism,” including from potentially hostile nations, like communist China, “creating a whole generation of American citizens abroad with no meaningful ties to the United States.”
The ACLU’s Wang told reporters after oral arguments, “I come out of the court today with the thought of my parents and so many of our parents and ancestors — who came to this country seeking refuge, seeking new opportunties and who relied on the rule that we’ve had in this country for 150 years — that everyone born here is a United States citizen, all alike.”
.@WangCecillia: “I come out of the court today with the thought of my parents and so many of our parents and ancestors — who relied on the rule that we’ve had in this country for 150 years — that everyone born here is a United States citizen, all alike.” pic.twitter.com/0vxjFKCkjP
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 1, 2026
She added, “And I am confident that the Court is going to turn back this president’s effort to radically rewrite our Fourteenth Amendment rule of birthright citizenship.”
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