ROOKE: SCOTUS Flips The Bird To Young Americans

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The U.S. Supreme Court just handed birthright citizenship to illegal immigrants’ children and birth tourists; the implications for young Americans will be severe.

In Trump v. Barbara, SCOTUS struck down President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order that would have denied automatic U.S. citizenship to children born in the U.S. if neither parent was a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. This part of the decision was somewhat expected. However, Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority, enshrined in the U.S. Constitution the principle that nearly all children born on U.S. soil are citizens at birth. There is a narrow exception for children born to foreign diplomats, but other than those, birth tourists and illegal immigrants have free rein to give their children U.S. citizenship.

🚨 Justice Alito in his dissent: “The Court’s interpretation is not only contrary to the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, it produces grotesque results.” https://t.co/OrHxALsYVC pic.twitter.com/2zjShEvjMG — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 30, 2026

🚨 Justice Alito in his dissent: “The Court’s interpretation is not only contrary to the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, it produces grotesque results.” https://t.co/OrHxALsYVC pic.twitter.com/2zjShEvjMG

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 30, 2026

In large part, this means that the dynamics of “anchor babies” (U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants) and birth tourism continue as before, with no immediate policy change. However, the way the opinion was written also means that, aside from Congress passing a Constitutional amendment, the only way to fix this is for a new court to overturn the decision, similar to what happened with Roe v. Wade. It took 49 years to end federally protected abortions, and a lot of bad can happen in the U.S. should it take that long to overturn birthright citizenship. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)

The number of “anchor babies” born in the U.S. every year is no small number. Births to illegal immigrant parents amount to........

© The Daily Caller