President Donald Trump says he is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to rehear the birthright citizenship case.
Last month’s 6-3 decision struck down the president’s executive order challenging birthright citizenship. The order stated that children born on U.S. soil must also have at least one parent who is an American citizen or lawful permanent resident.
Trump’s executive order was attempting to combat the proliferation of birth tourism, a practice in which women who are about to give birth come to the U.S. in order for their child to receive U.S. citizenship.
Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday evening that he “will be asking for a Rehearing by the United States Supreme Court, IMMEDIATELY. This miscarriage of justice will destroy America if they don’t change their absolutely insane decision.”
The Supreme Court has rarely agreed to rehear a case, and the last time a reheard case was overturned occurred in 1956.
“Instead, the principal significance of rehearing petitions with respect to merits rulings today is how they affect the timing of the remand to lower courts—as in the Trump case,” Georgetown law professor Steve Vladeck wrote in a Substack post.
A majority of the Court must agree to the rehearing for it to be granted.
Meanwhile, Republican members of Congress as well as conservative activists are calling for the body to legislatively clarify the meaning of “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the Fourteenth Amendment.
That clause was interpreted by the Court’s majority ruling to include children born in the U.S. to parents that are not citizens, but Justice Clarence Thomas in his dissent wrote that “An exception [to the clause excluding] … those born in the United States to foreign parents unlawfully or temporarily in the country is consistent with that principle and therefore with the Fourteenth Amendment.”
U.S. Rep. Brian Babin (R–Woodville) introduced a bill in December 2025 to clarify the interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Titled HR 569, the bill states that “a person is subject to U.S. jurisdiction if he or she is born to a parent who is (1) a U.S. citizen or national, (2) a lawful permanent resident residing in the United States, or (3) a non-U.S. national (alien under federal law) with a lawful immigration status who is performing active service in the Armed Forces.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson posted in the wake of the decision, “We are evaluating all our options to address the crisis following the Supreme Court’s errant opinion.”
Babin said, “Congress already has the answer: pass my Birthright Citizenship Act and RESTORE the original meaning of the Constitution.”
