Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, blocks Trump order

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the right to citizenship for people born in the United States, rejecting an executive order by President Donald Trump that sought to undo that longstanding constitutional principle for children born to many immigrants. "Children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are 'subject to the jurisdiction' of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause," the majority decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts said. Roberts was joined by his fellow conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, along with the court's three liberal justices, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, in the majority ruling on 14th Amendment grounds. Another conservative, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, wrote that he did not believe Trump's executive order violated the 14th Amendment, but that it "does contravene a federal statute" adopted in 1940 that addresses the citizenship of people born in the U.S. The other three conservatives on the court, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, all wrote dissenting opinions. "The Court has made a serious mistake," Alito wrote. The court's justices had signaled during oral arguments in April that they would affirm that individuals born in the United States to non-U.S. citizens are automatically granted citizenship. Trump attended the oral arguments, the first sitting president ever to do so. The case is known as Trump v. Barbara. …