**Supreme Court to Hear Case on Trump's Birthright Citizenship Order**

For over a century and a half, U.S. citizenship has been granted to nearly all individuals born within its territories, irrespective of their parents' immigration status. This longstanding practice is now under threat due to President Donald Trump's January 2025 executive order. The order stipulates that children born in the U.S. to parents who are either in the country illegally or not permanent residents are ineligible for citizenship.

On May 15, 2025, the Supreme Court will hear arguments regarding this controversial order. President Trump's directive has been met with significant judicial resistance. Federal judges in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Washington have each blocked the order, maintaining that the president cannot modify the Constitution through an executive order. These courts assert that the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause, which provides citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, was not interpreted incorrectly as suggested by the Trump administration.

The Trump administration's current appeal to the Supreme Court seeks to narrow these judicial blocks. Specifically, the administration wants the rulings to apply solely to the noncitizen plaintiffs in the aforementioned cases, potentially enabling the executive order to impact all other noncitizens.

The core of the debate revolves around the interpretation of the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, which states, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." Traditionally, only children of enemy combatants and foreign diplomats working in the U.S. are excluded from this provision. Trump's order proposes a third exception: children born to mothers without legal authorization or with temporary visas, provided the father is neither a lawful permanent resident nor a U.S. citizen.

Since the issuance of the executive order, states, cities, immigration rights organizations, and numerous private individuals have filed lawsuits against Trump and the federal agencies tasked with enforcing the order. If fully implemented, the directive could render hundreds of thousands of U.S.-born children stateless and subject to deportation, deprived of basic rights and privileges, such as health care and educational aid.

The impending Supreme Court decision will hinge on the court’s interpretation of the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" within the 14th Amendment. The administration contends that this phrase excludes children of certain noncitizens, a viewpoint reminiscent of a dissent from the 1898 Wong Kim Ark case—a viewpoint the Supreme Court previously rejected.

Regardless of the Supreme Court's forthcoming ruling about the scope of the existing federal judges’ bans, the ultimate constitutionality of Trump’s executive order remains a critical and unresolved issue.