On Friday, June 27, 2025, the United States Supreme Court made an important decision that affects who can get U.S. citizenship at birth. The Court said the federal government can start enforcing parts of a January 20th executive order that limits automatic citizenship for some children born in the U.S. to nonimmigrant and undocumented parents.
More specifically, this executive order stated that at least one parent must be a U.S. citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) (aka: green card holder) for their child to get citizenship at birth, even if the child is born on U.S. soil. Critics say this violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which has long been interpreted to grant citizenship to nearly everyone born in the U.S. Should the Executive Order be allowed to partially take effect, it remains unclear what the immigration status of children born to non-citizen or non-LPR parents not protected by the current injunctions will be at birth. It also remains unclear whether, if the executive order is ultimately deemed unconstitutional, impacted children born in the U.S. while the ban was in effect would retroactively be accorded U.S. citizenship.
What’s Happening?
The Supreme Court’s decision was not on the overall constitutionality of the Executive Order. Instead, it focused on how lower courts handled the lawsuits challenging its constitutionality when they issued nation-wide preliminary injunctions blocking the executive order from taking effect in all 50 states while federal court cases challenging the order’s constitutionality played out.
Earlier this year, several courts had completely blocked the order from taking effect across the entire country. Today’s Supreme Court ruling found that those nationwide injunctions were too broad. The Court said the government should only be stopped from applying the order to the specific parties who brought the lawsuits.
The Court put the order on hold for 30 days which gives more people a chance to file lawsuits or join class action lawsuits, thus enabling more individuals to be protected under the limited block the Court left in place.
What This Means:
In short, only the named plaintiffs in the current lawsuits are protected right now. Individuals in the 22 states who were not named parties would need to seek protection through new lawsuits or class action certification during the 30-day pause. More details on the current scope of the ban are below:
1. Who is definitely protected right now?
Only the specific individuals who were parties to the lawsuit(s) are currently protected under the limited injunction that remains in effect.
This means children born to plaintiffs in the case (e.g., named individuals challenging the Executive Order) remain eligible for U.S. citizenship at birth.
2. Are individuals born in the 22 states that filed lawsuits also protected?
Not yet. The injunction does not automatically extend to everyone born in those states.
The 22 states that have sued the federal government are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
The Court specifically declined to apply a nationwide or broader regional injunction, limiting the current protection to the specific plaintiffs.
3. What happens during the 30-day stay?
The 30-day stay delays the implementation of the Executive Order, giving time for:
Other individuals to file lawsuits and potentially seek protection.
Potential class actions to be filed and certified, which could expand the injunction’s reach to residents of entire states or possible even a nationwide injunction
What To Expect
This is not the end of the road. The lower courts still need to rule on whether the executive order is constitutional. That means the bigger question of whether the government can limit birthright citizenship this way hasn’t been answered yet.
For now, families and individuals concerned about this change should speak with legal counsel and stay up to date. The rules may continue to shift in the coming months as the legal challenges continue.
D&S is monitoring this developing situation closely and will share updates as they become available.