Trump scores win in US Supreme Court over birthright citizenship order, but challenges remain | World News

In a 6–3 decision on Friday, the US Supreme Court sided with the Trump adminration, ruling that federal courts overstepped their authority issuing nationwide injunctions to block President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at restricting birthright citizenship, news agency Reuters reported. The ruling is a significant procedural victory for Trump, though it stops short of deciding the constitutional legality of his controversial directive.
The court’s decision, written Justice Amy Coney Barrett, mandates that lower courts in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Washington state reconsider the sweeping scope of the nationwide injunctions they imposed. These injunctions had completely halted enforcement of Trump’s order, which sought to deny US citizenship to children born on American soil unless at least one parent is a US citizen or lawful permanent resident.
The justices ruled that Trump’s directive cannot take effect until at least 30 days after Friday’s ruling, giving lower courts time to revise their orders.
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“Judiciary does not have unbridled authority”
“No one disputes that the Executive has a duty to follow the law,” Barrett wrote. “But the Judiciary does not have unbridled authority to enforce this obligation – in fact, sometimes the law prohibits the Judiciary from doing so.”
The case marks a broader attempt the Trump adminration to curb the power of federal judges to issue “universal” or “nationwide” injunctions—rulings that block federal policies for everyone, not just the individuals who brought the lawsuits.
Friday’s decision stops short of determining the legality of the birthright citizenship policy itself, focusing instead on the scope of judicial power. However, it could still pave the way for the executive order to take effect in parts of the country while legal challenges proceed in others.
Trump’s order: A challenge to the 14th amendment?
Trump signed the executive order on his first day back in office this January. If enforced, it would deny citizenship to more than 150,000 newborns annually, according to estimates from civil rights groups and state attorneys general who filed lawsuits against the policy.Story continues below this ad
Opponents argue the order violates the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” Ratified in 1868 after the Civil War, the amendment was intended to ensure citizenship for formerly enslaved people but has long been interpreted to grant automatic citizenship to anyone born on US soil.
An 1898 Supreme Court ruling, United States v. Wong Kim Ark, upheld that interpretation, granting citizenship to a child born in the US to Chinese immigrant parents who were not citizens. Trump’s legal team argues the precedent is narrower than commonly believed, asserting it only applies to children of immigrants with a permanent US domicile.