Mar 13, 2025 - Politics & Policy

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to intervene in birthright citizenship cases

Avery Lotz

Trump sits near the fireplace in the Oval Office during a meeting. — President Trump during a meeting with Mark Rutte, NATO secretary general, not pictured, in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday, March 13. Photo: Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court Thursday to overturn lower court orders blocking the president's day-one executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship.

The big picture: In the three separate cases — for which the administration filed three different petitions to the high court — judges issued nationwide injunctions blocking the order, which faces significant constitutional hurdles.

Birthright citizen was added to the Constitution in the 14th Amendment after the Civil War to guarantee newly-freed slaves' citizenship.
The Supreme Court in the 1890s affirmed birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are not citizens.

Driving the news: The administration turned to the court with a "modest" request to restrict the preliminary injunctions to cover only those who are directly involved in the case.

"The district courts should have limited their preliminary injunctions to the parties properly before them: the individual respondents, the identified members of the organizational respondents, and, only if they are proper parties, the state respondents," acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris argued.
She also aruged "near-universal birthright citizenship has created strong incentives for illegal immigration" and "led to 'birth tourism.'"

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Trump administration asks Supreme Court to intervene in birthright citizenship cases

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