It was widely, almost universally, expected that Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order purporting to abolish “birthright citizenship” would not survive a U.S. Supreme Court review of its constitutionality. Not so expected was that four Supreme Court justices would claim Trump’s action did comply with the 14th Amendment despite its clear language that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to its jurisdiction, are citizens of the United States.”

The majority opinion in Trump v. Barbara — written by Chief Justice John Roberts with Justice Amy Coney Barrett plus the Court’s three liberals concurring — argues that the plain language of the 14th Amendment extends citizenship to any child born in the United States. Roberts acknowledges that there have been marginal arguments over specific exceptions (e.g. members of recognized Native American tribes and the children of foreign diplomats). But he rejects the idea that the legal........

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