US Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship, Scraps President Donald Trump's Executive Order

In a landmark judgment in the United States, the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship, delivering a huge blow to President Donald Trump, who had issued an executive order declaring that children born to illegal immigrants and those who are in the United States temporarily are not American citizens.

According to an AP report, the divided court relied on a long-settled understanding of the 14th Amendment adopted after the Civil War. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, "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."

In a 91-page dissenting judgment, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, "The Court today takes the extraordinary step of holding facially unconstitutional the President’s Order excluding from citizenship the children of foreign temporary visitors and illegal aliens."

The birthright citizenship has long remained woven into the fabric of American society. The order comes just days before the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary on July 4.

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Despite Trump's Executive Order limiting birthright citizenship, its implementation anywhere was not possible until now, as the restrictions had been blocked by several lower courts.

Notably, Trump had signed the birthright citizenship order on the first day of his second term, marking the start of what became a broad crackdown on immigration.

Before the judgment, he hurled criticism at judges, seemingly recognising that the court was likely to rule against him.

In a post on Truth Social, the US President criticised the "dumb judges and justices" and wealthy pregnant women from China and elsewhere who come to the US to give birth so their newborns will have American citizenship.

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The top US court also issued two orders - upholding restrictions on transgender student athletes and banning them from in female sports team, and striking down curbs on coordinated campaign spending. Both of the verdicts were welcomed by Trump.