President Donald Trump is pushing Congress to pick up where his birthright citizenship order left off. The Supreme Court struck down the policy in a 6-3 ruling on Tuesday. The decision dealt a setback to one of the president’s most closely watched initiatives.
Donald Trump reacts to Supreme Court’s decision
Trump and several allies in Congress say the fight is not over. They argue lawmakers could pass a bill mirroring the blocked order, even though the numbers in the current Congress make that a tough sell.
Donald Trump responded on Truth Social soon after the ruling came down. “The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation, with the support of the President, that has now been determined during this process,” he wrote.
“No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary! Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my Complete and Total Support!”
Five justices pinned their decision squarely on the 14th Amendment’s guarantee that anyone “born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” holds citizenship. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whom Trump installed on the bench, broke from the majority’s constitutional reasoning but still found the order unlawful.
That constitutional grounding creates an immediate headache for the legislative fix Trump envisions. Senator John Cornyn laid it on X (formerly Twitter), “Recall for a constitutional amendment to be adopted: A proposed amendment must be passed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, then ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states.”
The Senate route offers no relief either. Republicans control 53 seats but need 60 votes to break a filibuster. Democrats remain unanimously opposed, and several GOP moderates have shown zero appetite for touching birthright citizenship. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has publicly said the chamber lacks the votes to nuke the filibuster altogether.
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.
