Well, that executive order lasted about as long as a snowball in a deep fryer. The Supreme Court has struck down President Donald Trump's executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship, as reported by Trending Views, reaffirming what has been the legal understanding for a very long time: if you are born on American soil, you are an American citizen.
The ruling in Trump v. Barbara was a split decision, but the interesting part is who crossed the aisle. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with the liberal justices to form the majority. That is the kind of coalition that makes both sides of the political aisle spit out their coffee simultaneously.
Trump signed this executive order on literally his first day back in office, making it a centerpiece of his immigration enforcement strategy. Day one material. The crown jewel. And the Supreme Court just put it in a box and returned it to sender. As originally reported, this marks the second major legal defeat for Trump's immigration agenda in recent months, following the court blocking much of his tariff agenda back in February. The judicial branch is apparently not feeling cooperative this season.
Now here is where it gets a little more complicated. While the constitutional fight over birthright citizenship itself just hit a wall, the administration has been busy on a parallel track going after birth tourism. The State Department has been uncovering birth tourism networks across West Africa, Europe, and North Africa, finding elaborate operations involving fraudulent documents and carefully orchestrated travel plans designed to get pregnant foreign nationals onto U.S. soil specifically to give birth.
In one case, a U.S. embassy in West Africa dismantled what officials called a "sophisticated birth tourism network" involving more than 100 foreign nationals who allegedly used fraudulent documents to obtain visas. Those visas got revoked faster than you can say "denied at the gate."
"Under President Trump, the State Department is defending the integrity of U.S. citizenship by ending illegal birth tourism schemes," read State Department messaging obtained by The Daily Wire. "No foreigner is permitted to obtain a visitor visa for the primary purpose of acquiring U.S. citizenship for a child by giving birth in the U.S."
So the administration can still go after fraudulent visa schemes all day long. That part is not really in question. What the Supreme Court made crystal clear is that you cannot just wave an executive order around and redefine what the Constitution says about who gets to be a citizen. The 14th Amendment has been sitting there since 1868, and apparently it is not impressed by executive orders, no matter how dramatically they are signed on day one.
The tension between the White House and the judiciary on immigration is not going anywhere. But for now, birthright citizenship stays exactly where it has been for over 150 years.
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