Donald Trump vowed to fight the Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship ruling, but the clock just ran out. The administration quietly missed a critical legal deadline that could reshape the debate over citizenship rights in the United States.
Donald Trump misses deadline for birthright citizenship
The Trump administration failed to file a rehearing petition with the U.S. Supreme Court over birthright citizenship, Newsweek reports. The 25-day window under Supreme Court Rule 44 closed without any submission appearing on the public docket. As of July 29, court records confirmed no petition had been filed.
The Supreme Court delivered a 6-3 ruling against Trump’s executive order in Trump v. Barbara on June 30. The majority determined that individuals born on U.S. soil hold citizenship at birth under the 14th Amendment. Chief Justice John Roberts authored the opinion reinforcing established readings of the Citizenship Clause.
Despite the ruling, Trump had publicly vowed to contest the decision shortly after it was issued. “I will be asking for a Rehearing by the United States Supreme Court, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump posted on Truth Social on July 8. “This miscarriage of justice will destroy America if they don’t change their absolutely insane decision.”
The court’s opinion preserved the precedent set by the 1898 case United States v. Wong Kim Ark. That historic decision confirmed that children born in the country to immigrant parents are U.S. citizens. Roberts further noted that the amendment’s authors intended citizenship for “every free-born person in this land.”
Republican legislators are now exploring other avenues to narrow citizenship access. Virginia Representative Morgan Griffith proposed the End Birthright Citizenship for Territories Act targeting automatic citizenship in Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands. The legislation would restrict those provisions to individuals born before January 1, 2027.
Proponents of tighter birthright rules have also highlighted the issue of birth tourism. Approximately 300,000 children were born to undocumented immigrant mothers in 2023, per the Pew Research Center. Although the ruling blocked the executive-order strategy, future efforts may proceed through new laws or a constitutional amendment.
