Washington: The US Supreme Court overturned President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship, dealing the biggest legal setback to his presidency since ruling against his tariff regime earlier this year.
But in a major victory for the Trump administration, the court allowed states to ban transgender athletes from participating in female and female sports, finding that, given the inherent physical differences between the sexes, “separate sports teams for biological males and biological females are reasonable.”
The opinions were issued just before the court’s long summer break and come a day after an avalanche of verdicts on Trump administration matters that will affect presidential power well beyond Trump’s term.
In a split decision, the court majority affirmed birthright citizenship, determining: “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights, to participate freely in our political community. The framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free person born in this land.'”
The first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State in which they reside.”
One of Trump’s first acts on January 20, 2025 – the day he took office – was to sign an executive order stating that citizenship should not be recognized if a baby’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States at the time of birth and the father was not a citizen or permanent resident.
Citizenship would also not be recognized if the mother was legally but temporarily in the US at the time of birth and the father was not a citizen or permanent resident.
But the court noted that none of these words or concepts were found in the 14th Amendment. “For one simple reason: they didn’t matter,” the majority concluded.
“If Congress intended to limit U.S. citizenship to the children of those domiciled in the United States, nothing in the succinct language of the Citizenship Clause conveyed that design.”
The bank was divided, and not strictly along ideological lines. Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative justice appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, wrote the majority opinion and was joined by the three liberal justices and Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee.
Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative Trump appointee, concluded that the president’s executive order violated not the Constitution but a federal law that could still be changed.
The other conservative justices strongly disagreed. Clarence Thomas, the second-longest-serving Supreme Court justice in U.S. history, said the 14th Amendment was enacted after the Civil War to guarantee the rights of former slaves, not “natural-born tourists and illegal aliens.” In his dissent he said: “I am not sure that today’s opinion will stand the test of time.”
Trump had already predicted that he expected the court to rule against him. In a social media post, he said the verdict was “bad for our country” but that birthright citizenship could still be dismantled through legislation rather than an executive order.
“Congress should begin work TODAY to end our country’s costly and unfair birthright citizenship. You will have my complete and total support!” said.
In a later post, Trump described the court’s decision as a victory for China. The administration argued in court that the companies were helping Chinese elites, among others, enter the United States to give birth, so that their children could obtain American citizenship.
“I would like to congratulate President Xi and the great country of China for their huge WIN on birthright citizenship!” Trump wrote on Tuesday (Washington time).
While some politicians and experts have cited much higher figures, the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates low immigration, attributes between 20,000 and 26,000 births a year to birth tourism.
Immigration reform has been a focus of Trump’s second term, including closing the country’s southern border and deporting millions of people he says are living in the United States illegally.
Even though its 6-3 conservative majority frequently ruled in Trump’s favor, the Supreme Court has been a major brake on the president’s agenda, most notably when it struck down his so-called “reciprocal tariffs” in February.
But the court handed him a major victory on Tuesday (US time) by siding with West Virginia in a case brought by the family of a biologically male transgender girl who wanted to compete on her school’s girls’ track teams.
The majority ruled that the anti-discrimination law – specifically, a 1972 one called Title IX – did not prevent schools from limiting sports teams to biological women, which they said was a reasonable line to draw.
“Given the inherent physical differences between the sexes, allowing only biological females to play on women’s and girls’ teams may reduce the risk of physical injury and ensure fair competition,” the majority wrote.
There was insufficient medical evidence to claim (as the plaintiffs did) that at least some biological males who took puberty blockers no longer retained physical advantages over biological females, the court concluded.
The ruling upholds laws banning transgender athletes from playing women’s sports in 27 US states and will potentially influence governments and sports bodies internationally as they grapple with similar issues.
Riley Gaines, a former college swimmer turned conservative activist who campaigns against the inclusion of transgender women in women’s sports, said the country’s law “now reflects reality and common sense.”
Not everyone agreed. One of the highest-ranking Democrats to speak out against the decision was 2024 vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, whose state allows transgender participation.
“As the Supreme Court says states can be cruel to trans children, my message is clear: Here in Minnesota, we support and value our neighbors and trans youth,” he said.
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Michael Koziol is North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, deputy editor of the Sun-Herald and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via unknown either email.
