Olga Urbina and her child Ares Webster from Baltimore, MD, demonstrated outside the Supreme Court before justices heard oral arguments May 15 in the birthright citizenship case known as Trump v. CASA, Inc.
People demonstrated May 15, 2025 outside the Supreme Court before justices heard oral arguments in Trump v. CASA, Inc., a birthright citizenship case.

As President Donald Trump attended the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw on Friday, Dec. 5, the Supreme Court said that it would hear an appeal in a case that would determine if Trump could end birthright citizenship for some children born in the United States.

The high court agreed that it would review a lower court's rejection of Trump’s argument that children of parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily are not entitled to citizenship.

Since the campaign, Trump has pledged to clarify the birthright citizenship amendment to only those “born in AND 'subject to the jurisdiction' of the United States."

In a press release following the Supreme Court’s announcement, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the administration's efforts to undermine birthright citizenship were “flouting” the Constitution.

“No president can change the 14th Amendment’s fundamental promise of citizenship,” Cecillia Wang, the ACLU national legal director, said.

Here is what you need to know about birthright citizenship.

What is birthright citizenship?

The 14th Amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution in 1868, following the Civil War, and granted citizenship and freedoms outlined in the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people.

The amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

For 157 years, birthright citizenship has made anyone born in the United States a citizen – whether the child of citizens, foreign nationals living legally in the U.S., or unauthorized immigrants.

How many people gain citizenship through birthright?

According to estimates from the Migration Policy Institute and Penn State’s Population Research Institute, ending birthright citizenship would result in an average of 255,000 children being born in the U.S. without citizenship each year, and would increase the number of unauthorized migrants living in the U.S. by 2.7 million by 2045, and 5.4 million by 2075.

The Pew Research Center found in 2022 that about 4.4 million U.S.-born children under 18 live with an unauthorized immigrant parent.

USA TODAY’s Sara Chernikoff, Ramon Padilla and Kathryn Palmer contributed to this report.

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is birthright citizenship? What to know after Supreme Court agrees to hear appeal

Reporting by Fernando Cervantes Jr., USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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