Birthright Citizenship Litigation

The Supreme Court handed President Trump a major procedural boost for his campaign of limiting access to birthright citizenship, but there’s a lot of litigation between now and resolution on the issue. The Clearinghouse is tracking it all.

The Fourteenth Amendment provides that “[a]ll persons born and naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”  But a Trump Administration day-1 Executive Order seeks to end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. whose mother is undocumented or a temporary visitor, if the father is neither a citizen nor a green card holder.  

Plaintiffs in more than a dozen cases are arguing that the Executive Order is unlawful. You can see the Clearinghouse’s collection of the cases challenging the Executive Order here. After multiple federal courts across the nation agreed with the plaintiffs and issued nationwide injunctions, the Supreme Court ruled on June 27, 2025 that this kind of injunction is improper if it exceeds what’s necessary for “complete relief” for litigating parties.   You can see more Clearinghouse coverage on this case here.

After this Administration victory, the path to a nationwide injunction has narrowed, both for this case and many others. Now, nationwide relief requires either a certified class action or a finding that a nationwide order is necessary for state plaintiffs to receive complete relief.  So litigation is only heating up.