Trump's new attempt to limit birthright citizenship is already facing a legal challenge, weeks after the Supreme Court killed his first one
In June, the court ruled 6-3 that birthright citizenship is constitutional. In August, he tried again anyway.
On August 6, Trump signed two new executive orders on immigration: one excluding certain categories of US-born children from automatic citizenship, expanded to include children of "alien enemies," members of foreign terrorist organizations, and people acting on behalf of foreign governments; the other restricting visas and entry over so-called "birth tourism." This comes five weeks after the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that his original 2025 attempt to strip birthright citizenship from children of undocumented parents was unconstitutional. The ACLU has already launched a challenge to the new order.
The Supreme Court didn't leave much room for a second attempt. Its ruling reaffirmed that birthright citizenship is constitutionally guaranteed, not something an executive order can redefine. Signing new orders anyway, just weeks later, is either a bet that narrower categories will survive court scrutiny where the broad version didn't, or a deliberate move to keep the fight going regardless of the legal odds. Either way, it's forcing the same constitutional question back into the courts almost immediately.
Watch how fast the ACLU's challenge moves and whether a court blocks the new order the way the last one eventually was. Given the Supreme Court's decision is only two months old, a repeat legal defeat here would be a fast one, even by the standard of this fight.