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By Jenna Sundel
News Reporter
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President Donald Trump is attending Supreme Court arguments on Wednesday in a case related to his executive order to end birthright citizenship.
When asked about arguments in the case on Tuesday, Trump said: "And I'm going. I think so. I do believe."
Trump is the first sitting president to attend an oral argument at the Supreme Court, Reuters reported, citing Clare Cushman, the resident historian at the Supreme Court Historical Society.
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The case centers around whether the order complies with the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Nationality Act of 1940, which has been understood as making everyone born in the U.S. a citizen, with exceptions for children of foreign diplomats and invading armies.
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Why It Matters
Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term establishing that children of temporary visitors and illegal immigrants are not U.S. citizens by birth. The order was met with legal challenges, and every court that has considered the order has found it to be illegal and prevented it from taking effect.
More than a quarter-million babies born in the U.S. each year would be affected by the order, according to research by the Migration Policy Institute and Penn State University’s Population Research Institute.
The order represents one aspect of the Trump administration’s focus on immigration enforcement, which has also included deportations and stripping temporary legal protections from people fleeing political and economic instability.
What To Know
The case before the Supreme Court began with a legal challenge to Trump’s executive order filed for two babies and their parents and a pregnant woman who has since given birth, on behalf of a nationwide class. A district court certified the class and entered a preliminary injunction. The government appealed the decision and asked the Supreme Court to hear the case.
Attorneys for the Trump administration argued in a petition for a writ of certiorari that the Citizenship Clause was adopted to grant citizenship to newly freed slaves and their children but does not extend to the children of temporary visitors or illegal immigrants.
"Given its original meaning and history, the Clause does not extend citizenship to the children of transient visitors or illegal aliens," the attorneys wrote.
Attorneys for the respondents said in a brief in opposition that "numerous federal statutes are built on the assumption that all persons born in the United States are citizens who do not need to obtain immigration status or naturalize."
Trump wrote in support of the order on social media on Monday.
"Birthright Citizenship is not about rich people from China, and the rest of the World, who want their children, and hundreds of thousands more, FOR PAY, to ridiculously become citizens of the United States of America. It is about the BABIES OF SLAVES! We are the only Country in the World that dignifies this subject with even discussion," Trump said. "Look at the dates of this long ago legislation - THE EXACT END OF THE CIVIL WAR! The World is getting rich selling citizenships to our Country, while at the same time laughing at how STUPID our U.S. Court System has become (TARIFFS!). ‘Dumb Judges and Justices will not a great Country make!’"
What People Are Saying
Attorneys for the Trump administration, in a petition for a writ of certiorari: "The government has a compelling interest in ensuring that American citizenship—the privilege that allows us to choose our political leaders—is granted only to those who are lawfully entitled to it. The lower court’s decisions invalidated a policy of prime importance to the President and his Administration in a manner that undermines our border security."
Attorneys for the respondents, in a brief in opposition: "The Order is squarely contrary to the constitutional text, this Court’s precedents, Congress’s dictates, longstanding Executive Branch practice, scholarly consensus, and well over a century of our nation’s everyday practice."
What Happens Next
The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case on Wednesday.
Update 4/1/26, 10:33 a.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information.
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