Former President Donald Trump petitioned the Supreme Court to rehear arguments in a birthright citizenship case after the justices declined to take the matter before the 2024 election. The request seeks reconsideration of the Court's decision not to grant certiorari on the constitutional question of whether the Fourteenth Amendment's citizenship clause automatically grants citizenship to children born in the United States to non-citizen parents.
Trump's motion targets the core language of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that all persons born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction become citizens. The case turns on whether "subject to its jurisdiction" creates an exception that permits Congress or states to deny birthright citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants or temporary visa holders.
The Supreme Court's prior refusal to hear the case reflected institutional caution about a deeply divisive political issue during an election year. Trump's renewed petition pushes the Court to reconsider that posture, arguing that the constitutional question warrants definitive resolution.
The birthright citizenship doctrine, established in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), has governed American citizenship law for over 125 years. That precedent rejected the common-law rule that a person's nationality derived from parental citizenship rather than place of birth. Wong Kim Ark held that the Fourteenth Amendment grants citizenship to children born on U.S. soil regardless of parental immigration status.
Trump's position challenges this settled interpretation and reflects broader policy debates over immigration enforcement and national membership. If the Supreme Court granted certiorari on rehearing and ruled in Trump's favor, it would overturn Wong Kim Ark and fundamentally alter citizenship eligibility rules affecting millions of Americans born to immigrant parents.
The motion presents a direct test of the Court's willingness to revisit longstanding constitutional doctrine. A grant of rehearing remains uncertain, as the justices rarely reverse prior denials of certior