President Donald Trump has called on Congress to pass a law ending birthright citizenship after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his executive order that aimed to limit the policy. The court ruled 6-3 that the order was unlawful, dealing a major setback to one of Trump's key immigration initiatives. Despite the decision, Trump said he would continue the fight through legislation instead of seeking a constitutional amendment.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump urged lawmakers to act immediately. He wrote, “The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation, with the support of the President, that has now been determined during this process. No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary! Congress should start TODAY to work on ending the expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my Complete and Total Support!”

Trump attended the Supreme Court hearing in April. He became the first sitting U.S. president to attend oral arguments before the court. The case focused on his executive order, which he signed on his first day back in office. The order would have limited birthright citizenship to children with at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident. Under the order, children born in the United States to temporary visitors, people on work or student visas, or undocumented immigrants would not receive U.S. citizenship at birth.

Lower courts had blocked the order soon after Trump signed it. The Supreme Court later agreed with those decisions. Five of the six justices who ruled against the order said it violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The amendment states, “All persons born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” The sixth justice, Brett Kavanaugh, who was nominated by Trump, said the order violated the law but not the Constitution.

The ruling means Trump will most likely need a constitutional amendment if he wants to achieve his goal. Senator John Cornyn of Texas explained the process in a post on X. He said, “Recall that a constitutional amendment to be adopted: A proposed amendment must be passed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, then ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states.”

A legislative effort also faces serious challenges. Republicans currently hold 53 seats in the Senate. They would need 60 votes to pass such a bill under existing Senate rules. Some Republican senators are also unlikely to support the proposal. Republicans could try to remove the legislative filibuster and reduce the voting requirement to 50 votes. However, many Republican senators oppose that move. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has repeatedly told Trump that the party does not have enough support to eliminate the filibuster.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller strongly criticised the ruling. He posted on X, “One of the most destructive and outrageous decisions in the long history of the Supreme Court. American citizenship is not the birthright of the world. It belongs only and solely to Americans. No provision of the Constitution can be read to require our national self-obliteration.”

Some Republican lawmakers also responded by supporting new action in Congress. Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri announced that he would introduce a constitutional amendment based on Trump's executive order. In a statement, he said, “Congress and the American people have the power to restore integrity and meaning to citizenship by limiting it to those who owe allegiance and loyalty to our nation. Our generation’s existential threat is a hostile takeover through mass migration.”

The birthright citizenship case is one of several recent decisions involving Trump. The conservative-majority Supreme Court has ruled against him in a number of important cases. It struck down most of his sweeping tariffs in February. On Monday, the court ruled that Trump could not remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from office. It also rejected a legal challenge that sought to restrict voting rights. In another decision, the court allowed a jury's finding to stand that Trump sexually abused and later defamed writer E. Jean Carroll.

At the same time, the Supreme Court has also ruled in Trump's favour in several major cases. On Monday, it overturned a 1935 decision that limited presidential control over independent federal agencies. Trump praised that ruling on Tuesday. He described it as the “biggest and most consequential” decision the court had issued “by far.” He also welcomed rulings on campaign finance and the participation of transgender women in girls' and women's sports.

While discussing the court's decisions, Trump admitted that the ruling on birthright citizenship was a setback. He said, “We had other good Victories, too, and we also had the Birthright Citizenship loss, which we will work to correct in Congress, but the big SLAUGHTER, was SLAUGHTER. The Republican Party was treated very fairly by the United States Supreme Court.”

Democrats from different wings of the party welcomed the court's decision. Representatives Adriano Espaillat, Yvette Clarke and Grace Meng, who lead the Congressional Hispanic, Black and Asian Pacific American caucuses, issued a joint statement. They said, “As we approach the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, we stand united in rejecting Trump’s dangerous and exclusionary vision of America. We are American, we belong here, and we will continue to defend birthright citizenship for generations to come.”

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani also welcomed the ruling, though he did not mention Trump directly. He said, “Today’s Supreme Court ruling affirms a promise that was written into our Constitution more than 150 years ago: if you are born on American soil, you are an American citizen, no matter the colour of your skin, where your parents were born, how you worship, or the language you speak at home. This should never have been in doubt. The federal administration sought to rewrite one of the clearest guarantees in our Constitution in an effort to decide who belongs in this country and who does not. Today, the Court rejected that effort.”

A new NBC News survey showed that Americans remain divided on the issue. The survey found that 54 percent of respondents believe being born in the United States is important to being “truly American,” while 45 percent disagree. Many people placed greater importance on sharing American customs and traditions and believing in the values of liberty and equality.

Representative Maxwell Frost also defended birthright citizenship after the ruling. He said, “Birthright citizenship has been settled law for more than 150 years. It’s a guarantee rooted in equal protection, not politics. Attempts to narrow or erase that guarantee were never about constitutional principle; they were about deciding who belongs in America.”