After the Supreme Court struck down Donald Trump’s efforts to redefine birthright citizenship, the president is turning to the legislative branch.
Several Republican lawmakers said Tuesday that they would pursue an effort to change birthright citizenship through legislation. Some are already drafting bills. But such legislative efforts are likely to face practical and logistical challenges that make passage improbable.
After the ruling, Trump said that congressional Republicans could “easily” alter birthright citizenship using legislation, punting responsibility for following through on one of his campaign promises to Congress.
“No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship.”
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Trump encouraged congressional Republicans to override the ruling without a constitutional amendment, but legislation alone is not enough to supersede the Constitution, which the Supreme Court today affirmed mandates birthright citizenship to anyone who is born in the United States.
Thomas Berry, director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies, told NOTUS in an email that there’s no room to narrow birthright citizenship via statute after today’s SCOTUS decision.
“The majority opinion explicitly rested its decision on the Fourteenth Amendment rather than on the narrower grounds of the citizenship statute,” he said. “And no act of Congress can override the Fourteenth Amendment, which means the only way to limit birthright citizenship going forward would be by constitutional amendment.”
On X, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) pointed out that for a constitutional amendment to be adopted, two-thirds of both houses of Congress and the legislatures of three-fourths of the states must agree to it.
Republican lawmakers quickly signaled their intention to try moving legislation anyway.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) posted the text of the “American Citizenship Act,” a bill he said he intends to introduce in response to the ruling.
“The majority tried to constitutionalize unlimited birthright citizenship. But Justice Kavanaugh MAY have left Congress a door. I’m filing legislation to walk through it,” he wrote. “And I’ll keep working on a constitutional amendment to restore American citizenship.”
In the lower chamber, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tennessee) said he would also introduce legislation.
All told, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Sen. Katie Britt (R-Alabama), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), Rep. Cory Mills (R-Florida), and Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Missouri) were among the lawmakers who said that Congress should pursue a legislative fix for birthright citizenship.
But the path to achieving that is unclear as Republicans stare down a packed legislative agenda ahead of midterm elections that will decide which party controls Congress for the final two years of Trump’s term.
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