In a six-to-three decision, the Supreme Court stuck down President Trump’s executive order that would have ended the U.S. practice of birthright citizenship, whereby any person born in the United States is instantly a U.S. citizen (with very specific exceptions, such as children born to foreign diplomats). Trump had declared that children born to non-U.S. mothers whose presence in the U.S. was either illegal or temporarily (such as student and tourist visas), and whose fathers are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents, would not be U.S. citizens at birth.
Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion. The vote was five-to-four on whether the executive order violated the Constitution, with Justice Kavanaugh writing that the EO violated statutory law, but not necessarily the Constitution. Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissented.
Interestingly, Gorsuch adds that while he agrees that children of temporary visitors would not necessarily become Americans under the Fourteenth Amendment, children born to illegal immigrants who have made the U.S. their primary home would be U.S. citizens by birth. On this aspect of the Trump EO, the ruling can be considered seven-to-two. [jar]