Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, rejects Trump order

The Supreme Court preserved birthright citizenship and blocked Donald Trump’s bid to strip it from children born in the United States to parents here unlawfully or only temporarily. In Trump v. Barbara, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for a 6-3 majority that the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause makes those children citizens at birth, with only narrow exceptions. The ruling left a constitutional amendment, not an executive order, as the only path to overturn that understanding.

The case centered on Executive Order No. 14,160, Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship, which lower courts had already blocked before it ever took effect anywhere in the country. Roberts was joined by Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred in the judgment but not the court’s constitutional reasoning, while Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

The court heard two hours of argument on April 1. Trump called the decision “too bad for our Country” and suggested Congress could act, but the majority said the constitutional question had already been settled by the Citizenship Clause and the post-Civil War rejection of Dred Scott. The practical effect is to keep citizenship automatic for babies born on U.S. soil, including those whose parents lack lawful status or are in the country on a temporary basis.

Melat Kiros, 29, a first-time candidate backed by democratic socialists, defeated 15-term incumbent Diana DeGette in the Democratic primary for Colorado’s 1st Congressional District, a seat centered on Denver County and extending into parts of Arapahoe County in Glendale and Holly Hills. The race was called at 10:03 p.m. with Kiros ahead by about 6 percentage points and 78% of the vote counted. Wanda James, a University of Colorado regent, finished third.

Attorney General Phil Weiser defeated Michael Bennet in the Democratic primary for governor, in the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Jared Polis.