Trump's attempt to end birthright citizenship rejected by Supreme Court

The US president signed the order his first day of his second term in January last year as he launched a crackdown on immigration.

The order aims to deny citizenship to babies born to illegal and temporary migrants in the US.

A US court initially blocked it and said it went against the 14th amendment of the US constitution, escalating it to the Supreme Court.

The majority of Supreme Court justices ruled against Trump in another blow to the president.

The 6-3 ruling marked the second time this year that the court has invalidated a major Trump initiative, following its February decision to strike down his sweeping global tariffs.

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The challengers said the Supreme Court already had settled the question of birthright citizenship in an 1898 case called United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which recognized that the 14th Amendment grants citizenship by birth on U.S. soil, including to the children of foreign nationals.

Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, who authored Tuesday's ruling, pointed to that 1898 ruling. "Not surprisingly, then, in the 128 years since, we have repeatedly understood the rule of Wong Kim Ark to guarantee citizenship to all children born in the United States and subject to its power," Roberts wrote. "We see no reason to depart from that view today."

Roberts said there was "scant evidence" to support the Trump administration's "dramatically revisionist view" of how to interpret the citizenship language of the 14th Amendment to limit birthright citizenship.

"If Congress intended to limit American citizenship to the children of those domiciled in the United States, nothing in the succinct language of the Citizenship Clause conveyed that design," Roberts wrote.

The Supreme Court weighed in on what it means to be an American citizen just ahead of the July 4 holiday when the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding.

Ahead of the ruling, some experts had estimated that Trump's directive could affect the legal status of as many as 250,000 ‌babies born each year and could require the families of millions more to prove the citizenship status of their newborns.