The United States Supreme Court today issued an opinion that declared unconstitutional the Trump administration’s January 20, 2025, Executive Order 14160 (“EO”) entitled Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship. The EO would have denied United States citizenship to persons born in the United States on or after February 19, 2025, if their parents were either not in lawful immigration status or held lawful nonimmigrant status at the time of the person’s birth.
We reported on this EO and its ongoing litigation in our Alerts on January 21, February 7, March 17, and July 14 of 2025. Oral arguments in this case were heard on April 1, 2026.
The Supreme Court upheld the decision of a federal judge in New Hampshire in Barbara et al v. Trump et al., a case brought by a nationwide class of United States-born children challenging the legality of the EO. The court found the EO unconstitutional as violative of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court specifically held that children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present (for example, in H-1B status) are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and are therefore automatically United States citizens. This holding necessarily found the EO to be unconstitutional.
The nationwide class involved in Barbara et al v. Trump comprised all current and future persons who were born in the United States on or after February 19, 2025, if (a) the person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (b) the person’s mother’s presence in the United States was lawful but temporary, and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of the person’s birth.
The Supreme Court’s judgment is a definitive one and closes all litigation surrounding the EO without the possibility of a further legal challenge. It also concludes unequivocally that any and all children born in the United States (including children of persons in lawful temporary status and persons with no lawful status) will continue to become United States citizens at birth. The Supreme Court’s opinion is available here.
