OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
11:52 AM – Thursday, April 17, 2025
In what is anticipated as one of the most eagerly-awaited cases the Supreme Court reviews since Trump took office, oral arguments in a lawsuit contesting President Donald Trump’s bid to terminate birthright citizenship will be heard next month.
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Four weeks from now, on May 15th, the high court justices will hear arguments on the merged cases.
On his first day in office, Trump signed the order — sparking a wave of litigation nationwide. Later, in March, the GOP administration requested that the U.S. Supreme Court step in and permit the implementation of a limited version of the president’s executive order, though the order still terminates birthright citizenship.
Regarding the upcoming oral arguments, three countrywide injunctions issued in the states of Maryland, Massachusetts, and Washington are at issue in the administration’s appeal. All three states had issued nationwide injunctions preventing the birthright citizenship ban from taking effect — a step that Trump administration lawyers argued in their Supreme Court filing was excessively “broad.”
Sarah Harris, the acting U.S. solicitor general, requested that the justices restrict the decisions’ application to those who were directly affected by the pertinent courts.
“These cases — which involve challenges to the President’s January 20, 2025 Executive Order concerning birthright citizenship — raise important constitutional questions with major ramifications for securing the border,” Harris stated in the appeal.
Trump’s executive order was originally scheduled to go into effect on February 19th.
When the 14th Amendment was written in 1866 and ratified in 1868, it was referring to the status and rights of formerly enslaved people following the Civil War. Its main purpose was to ensure that all persons born or naturalized in the United States—formerly enslaved African Americans—were granted full citizenship and equal protection under the law.
The Trump administration’s order seeks to reinterpret the 14th Amendment, as immigration advocates, among a number of other progressive groups, have argued that the 14th amendment includes all children of illegal aliens who are born in the U.S.
In legal terms, the terms “alien” and “immigrant” are somewhat related, but also distinct. An alien is simply any non-citizen, while an immigrant is an alien who has been granted the legal right to reside permanently in a country.
According to the Trump administration’s interpretation, children born in the U.S. to illegal alien parent[s] or those who were in the country lawfully but only due to their temporary non-immigrant visas — are “not Americans” by birthright.
However, the GOP administration’s interpretation has already been rejected by a number of federal courts — thus why Trump lawyers are bringing the issue to SCOTUS. More than 22 U.S. states and immigration rights organizations swiftly filed lawsuits against the Trump administration, claiming in court documents that the executive order is both “unprecedented” and illegal.
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