# Trump asks Supreme Court to review ban on birthright citizenship

## White House argues that nationwide injunctions blocking President Trump's birthright citizenship executive order are overly broad



Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey defended President Donald Trump's opening volley of executive orders, saying he within his rights to end birthright citizenship and to pause.

Judges in those states immediately moved to block President ’s order banning birthright citizenship, which he signed on his first day in office.

All three courts blocked the ruling nationwide – something lawyers for the Trump administration argued in their  is overly broad.

In the court filing Thursday, acting U.S. Solicitor General Sarah Harris said the courts had gone too far, and asked the Supreme Court justices to limit the scope of the rulings to cover only individuals directly impacted by the relevant courts.





The U.S Customs and Border Protection building on 14th Street in Washington, D.C. (iStock)

Instead, the language put forth by the Trump administration, and subsequently blocked, would have clarified that individuals born to illegal immigrant parents, or those who were here legally but on temporary non-immigrant visas, are not citizens by birthright.

To date, no court has sided with the Trump administration's executive order seeking to ban birthright citizenship, though multiple district courts have blocked it from taking effect.

The Department of Justice, for its part, has sought to characterize the order as an "integral part of President Trump’s broader effort to repair the United States’ immigration system, and to address the ongoing crisis at the southern border."

The executive order Trump signed was originally slated to come into force Feb. 19, and would have impacted the hundreds of thousands of children born in the U.S. annually.



Supreme Court justices attend President Donald Trump's inauguration at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

More than 22 U.S. states and immigrants' rights groups quickly sued the Trump administration to block the ban on birthright citizenship, arguing in court filings that the executive order is both unconstitutional and "unprecedented."



The states have also argued that the 14th Amendment does, in fact, guarantee citizenship to persons born on U.S. soil and naturalized in the U.S.

The U.S. is one of roughly 30 countries where  is applied.

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