The US Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected President Donald Trump's attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, in a significant defeat for the Republican leader and his efforts to reduce the size of America's immigrant population.
The top court's nine justices ruled by six to three in favour of upholding a lower court's decision to block Mr Trump's executive order directing US agencies not to recognise the citizenship of children born in the US if neither parent is an American citizen or a green card holder.
Under the US Constitution's 14th Amendment, children born in the country are automatically citizens, except in rare cases.
Ratified in 1868 after the American Civil War, the amendment was adopted to ensure that former enslaved people were afforded equal protection under the law. Critics say the law has been abused in recent decades by people coming to the US without authorisation and then having babies even though the parents are in the country illegally.
“Birthright citizenship was not meant for people taking vacations to become permanent citizens of the United States of America, and bringing their families with them, all the time laughing at the 'suckers' that we are!” Mr Trump said on social media last year.
In his majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts focused on the matter through a constitutional prism.
“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights – to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the 14th Amendment extended that promise to 'every free-born person in this land,'” he wrote.
Mr Trump did not immediately respond to the Supreme Court ruling, but earlier posted a message on Truth Social that referenced a news story. It suggested that if the ruling went against him, Republicans would attempt to pass legislation to curtail birthright citizenship.
But with midterm elections coming in November and Democrats potentially gaining influence in Congress, legislative action appears unlikely for now.
Challengers to Mr Trump's order said it violated the Constitution's 14th Amendment giving citizenship to those born in the US who are “subject to the jurisdiction thereof”.
During the arguments, US Solicitor General D John Sauer, representing the administration, said the promise of citizenship for virtually any baby born on US soil has given rise to a booming “birth tourism” industry.
Mr Sauer said “uncounted thousands of foreigners from potentially hostile nations have flocked to give birth in the US in recent decades” to secure citizenship for their children.
Conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented. Justice Amy Coney Barrett and the court’s three liberals joined Mr Roberts’ majority opinion.
