Trump brushes off Supreme Court loss, urges Congress to end birthright citizenship

The Supreme Court rejected Donald Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship in a 6-3 decision on June 30, 2026, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing for the majority. The ruling reaffirmed that children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully present or temporarily present are citizens at birth under the 14th Amendment.

Trump brushed off the loss and called the ruling "too bad for our country," then urged Congress to move immediately. He said lawmakers could "easily make it up in Congress through Legislation" and that Congress should start "TODAY," arguing that no long constitutional amendment was needed.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Congress would discuss a constitutional amendment. The Court relied on the long-standing meaning of the Citizenship Clause, which opens the 14th Amendment and has been understood for more than 125 years to protect birthright citizenship. That reading is reinforced by United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the 1898 precedent that held a child born in the United States becomes a citizen at birth. An ordinary statute would still run into the same constitutional obstacle the Supreme Court just affirmed: Congress cannot rewrite the Citizenship Clause by simple legislation, and any durable change would likely require a constitutional amendment rather than a majority vote in either chamber.