President Donald Trump announced plans to ask the Supreme Court to rehear its recent decision protecting birthright citizenship, calling the 6-3 ruling that blocked his executive order "a miscarriage of justice" that "will destroy America" if not reversed. The president posted on Truth Social that he'll seek a rehearing "IMMEDIATELY," claiming "AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP IS NOT FOR SALE! In fact, that is a crime, and therefore, the Supreme Court's ruling is wrong."
The Supreme Court ruled 9 days ago that Trump's 2025 executive order violated the Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause, which guarantees that all persons born in the United States are citizens. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that children born to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily in the United States satisfy the citizenship clause, which states, "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."
A Constitutional Safeguard Under Attack
Trump issued the executive order ending birthright citizenship 1 year ago on his first day back in office as part of a broader crackdown on legal and illegal immigration. The order sought to prevent children of immigrants in the country without authorization from automatically becoming U.S. citizens simply because they were born on American soil. The Supreme Court's decision marked a major blow to Trump's hardline immigration agenda centered on large-scale deportations of immigrants in the country unlawfully.
The president's demand for a rehearing faces extraordinarily long odds. Under the Supreme Court's rules, parties in a case have 25 days to petition for a rehearing to challenge a judgment or decision based on the merits. Such rehearings have rarely been granted. The Supreme Court has not agreed to rehear a ruling of a case already argued since 1965, and the last time it reversed a decision it had made in an argued case was 1956.
Congressional Path Appears Blocked
Trump quickly called on Congress to take legislative action to prohibit birthright citizenship following the court's ruling. House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a July 5 interview on Fox News, "If there is a bill that can fix that, we'll advance that immediately." But because a majority of justices found that birthright citizenship is constitutionally protected under the 14th Amendment, prohibiting the policy would seemingly require amending the Constitution. That would need support from two-thirds of both chambers of Congress and three-fourths of the nation's state legislatures—an extraordinarily high bar that reflects the framers' intent to protect fundamental rights from temporary political majorities.
Why This Matters:
The birthright citizenship guarantee has been a cornerstone of American civil rights since Reconstruction, ensuring that no child born on U.S. soil can be rendered stateless or denied the protections of citizenship based on their parents' immigration status. Trump's continued attacks on this constitutional principle—even after a decisive Supreme Court defeat—signal an ongoing effort to reshape who counts as American. The president's demand for a rehearing, despite decades of precedent showing such requests are virtually never granted, underscores how central restricting citizenship has become to his immigration agenda. For the children of immigrants, many of whom are born into working families contributing to American communities, the constitutional protection affirmed by the court ensures they won't face a lifetime of legal limbo. The decision protects not just individual families but the broader principle that citizenship rights can't be stripped away by executive order, preserving a fundamental check on presidential power that safeguards vulnerable populations from political scapegoating.