The U.S. Supreme Court has reaffirmed the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, holding in a 6-3 decision that the 14th Amendment protects the citizenship of nearly all children born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts concluded that the Constitution’s Citizenship Clause extends this protection to “every free-born person in this land,” reaffirming more than a century of legal precedent. (Justice Brett Kavanaugh filed an opinion concurring in the judgment and dissenting in part.) The ruling strikes down the executive order that sought to limit birthright citizenship and reinforces one of the nation’s foundational constitutional principles. Happy 250th birthday America.
Read the full opinion and learn more about what this landmark decision means.
