Opinion

Constitution is on Trump’s side in Supreme Court birthright citizenship case

Supreme Court heard oral arguments on citizenship and Fourteenth Amendment's history may not say what left claims

By Chad R. Mizelle Fox News

Published April 2, 2026 7:00am EDT

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Supreme Court concludes oral arguments in birthright citizenship case

Fox News legal editor Kerri Urbahn breaks down oral arguments in the Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship case on ‘Outnumbered.’

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On Wednesday, April 1, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in what may be the most important case in decades. The court will now consider President Donald Trump’s executive order rejecting birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens, and the decision will have vast political and economic consequences for every American. 

But this all-important case should be open and shut: the Constitution’s text and history are on the president’s side. Nothing in the Constitution requires the government to give citizenship to the children of illegal aliens.

The case centers around the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, which states that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." The key phrase in dispute is "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof." A plain reading of the grammar ("and") shows that birthright citizenship requires two conditions, not just being born here.

Republicans in Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment in the aftermath of the Civil War to........

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