President Donald Trump made history today, April 1, 2026, by becoming the first sitting president to attend oral arguments at the Supreme Court. The high-stakes case, Trump v. Barbara, centers on an executive order signed on his first day in office that seeks to end automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S. to undocumented or temporary-resident parents.
The administration is asking the justices to overturn nearly 150 years of legal precedent, specifically challenging the 1898 Wong Kim Ark decision. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued before the bench that the 14th Amendment has been "fundamentally misunderstood" for a century. The DOJ's core claim is that children of non-citizens do not owe "primary allegiance" to the U.S. and therefore are not truly "subject to the jurisdiction" of the country as the Constitution requires.
Civil rights groups, including the ACLU, are fighting back, labeling the move a radical attempt to rewrite the nation’s foundational laws. They argue that the Citizenship Clause was explicitly designed to be a "bright-line rule" to prevent the creation of a permanent underclass of non-citizens. Critics warn that if Trump prevails, the citizenship of millions could be thrown into legal limbo, potentially affecting anyone whose parents were not citizens or permanent residents at the time of their birth.
Lower courts have consistently ruled against the White House, but the 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court has previously shown a willingness to entertain "originalist" interpretations of the law. While the President sat just feet away from the justices, the atmosphere inside the chamber was described as tense and "circus-like" by legal observers.
A final decision is expected by early summer. If the court rules in favor of the administration, it would represent the most significant shift in American citizenship law since the Reconstruction era, effectively ending the era of universal birthright citizenship in the United States.