Updated

Updated · The Bulwark · Jul 5

Republican Voters Embrace Trump on Birthright Citizenship After 5-4 Supreme Court Defeat

Updated

Updated · The Bulwark · Jul 5

Republican Voters Embrace Trump on Birthright Citizenship After 5-4 Supreme Court Defeat

Q: The Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship. Could Congress now pass a law to change it?

No—under the Supreme Court’s new ruling, Congress cannot simply pass an ordinary law to end birthright citizenship as it is currently understood. The Court’s 5-4 decision held that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees citizenship to nearly everyone born in the United States, including children of parents who are unlawfully or temporarily in the country. Because that protection was grounded in the Constitution itself, a federal statute that tried to deny it would almost certainly be struck down as unconstitutional. That means the main legal path to changing birthright citizenship would be a constitutional amendment, not regular legislation. Amending the Constitution requires two-thirds approval in both the House and Senate and ratification by three-fourths of the states. There is a narrower point of uncertainty. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, concurring in the judgment, said the executive order was invalid because it conflicted with federal law and suggested Congress could try to amend that law. But that was not the majority’s reasoning. The controlling opinion said the Constitution itself protects birthright citizenship, which sharply limits Congress’s room to act. So while lawmakers can still debate immigration policy, enforcement, and related statutes, they cannot override the Supreme Court’s constitutional reading with a simple bill. Unless the Constitution is amended or a future Supreme Court reverses course, birthright citizenship remains in place.

Q: Why did one justice call the order unlawful but not unconstitutional?

Justice Brett Kavanaugh made that distinction because he said the executive order was invalid under federal statute, not necessarily under the Constitution itself. In his separate opinion, Kavanaugh agreed the order could not stand because it conflicted with the Immigration and Nationality Act, which recognizes citizenship for people born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction. That made the order unlawful in his view. But he did not join the majority’s constitutional holding that the order violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The majority, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, said the Citizenship Clause itself protects birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present, relying on the text of the amendment and long-settled precedent including *United States v. Wong Kim Ark*. Kavanaugh’s approach was narrower. He treated the case as one that could be resolved on statutory grounds, meaning Congress could in theory try to change the law, even if the executive branch could not do so by order alone. That is why he described the order as unlawful but stopped short of calling it unconstitutional.

3 articles · Updated · The Bulwark · Jul 5

Florida focus-group interviews conducted before the ruling found Trump voters broadly skeptical of the nearly 160-year birthright citizenship precedent, even though the Supreme Court struck down his order 5-4.
Trump’s zero-sum framing of immigration appears to be driving that shift, with participants often casting immigrants as a drain on resources while still backing those who come to the U.S. “the right way.”
Some voters still drew limits around that hawkishness, warning that aggressive immigration policies could hurt naturalized citizens and damage U.S. goodwill.
The report argues Trump lost the legal fight but moved the GOP base toward his harder line, making immigration a likely litmus test for Republican presidential hopefuls in 2028 and beyond.

Sources

Left13%

Center63%

Right25%

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The Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship. Could Congress now pass a law to change it?

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Why did one justice call the order unlawful but not unconstitutional?

Birthright Citizenship Upheld: Supreme Court Blocks Trump’s 2025 Executive Order in Landmark 2026 Decision

Overview

On June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark decision in Trump v. Barbara, firmly upholding birthright citizenship in the United States. The Court rejected President Donald Trump’s executive order, which aimed to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily. This decision affirmed a broad interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, making clear that the executive branch cannot unilaterally change constitutional rights. The ruling not only blocked the executive order but also reinforced long-standing legal precedent, shaping the future of immigration policy and political debate.

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