President Donald Trump on Friday asked the US Supreme Court to review the legality of his executive order to restrict birthright citizenship in the country. The move has pushed the matter before the justices for the second time in 2025. By doing so, the Trump administration set up a high-stakes showdown over one of the most contentious policies that confers citizenship on people born in America.
In an appeal, the Republican President told the Supreme Court that the notion was “mistaken” and the idea became “pervasive, with destructive consequences.” The administration’s top appellate attorney, Solicitor General D. John Sauer, wrote, “The lower court’s decisions invalidated a policy of prime importance to the President and his Administration in a manner that undermines our border security. Those decisions confer, without lawful justification, the privilege of American citizenship on hundreds of thousands of unqualified people.”
Two appeals of lower court rulings were filed by the Justice Department that challenged Donald Trump’s executive order. The US President signed the order on January, his first day in office, as a key part of his strict immigration policy. The department urged the Supreme Court to hear the bid and resolve the case in its new term, which starts on October 6.
Trump’s executive order mandated that federal agencies withhold recognition of the citizenship of those children born in America without at least one parent who is a US citizen or lawful permanent resident, or a green card holder. The order violates and challenges the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which states that all individuals born in the United States are citizen.
